Do You?
by iSpecs
Summary: Chapter 12 is up. The first stage of the Chunin Exam draws to a close and the next stage begins, putting Team Nine in the path of danger as all Teams are left to fend for themselves. Can they truly survive the Forest or will they die like so many before?
1. Prologue

Author's Note: After reading a few of the newer alternate universe stories out there, I decided to come with this one of my own design. As this is an AU story, just know that one of the major changes I made is that the Kyuubi was **female** in this world, not the usual sarcastic and sadistic little demon everyone is so accustomed to. In addition to that, Kushina Uzumaki (the woman usually known as Naruto's birth mother) never accompanied Minato to Konoha so she never got pregnant with Naruto. Hate me if you want, it's cool with me.

Though the story starts at Naruto's birth, after the prologue and first chapter it will be mainly set around the time of the anime.

"I…" indicates speech.

_'I…' _indicates inner thought.

_**'I...' **_indicates conversation with Kyuubi.

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Do You...

* * *

Prologue: Kyuubi Child

_The tears couldn't help but well up as he stared out upon the village from atop Mt. Hokage, watching the waves of black-clad villagers as they slowly made their way back to their own partially destroyed homes after this day of sadness. All he knew was that, deep inside, a part of his humanity was beginning to give way after all he had seen and done in the last six months since this chapter of his life had begun. He felt the innocence of childhood that had resided within him slipping away; in its absence it gave way to the kind of cold adult shinobi he had always seen populating the ranks of ANBU. And as he thought of this, he had to ask himself if it was really the man he wanted to become?_

_"Naruto?" She asked timidly as she approached from behind him. Kiba had told her where to find him, having really known the blonde-headed shinobi personally a good three years longer than she had. _

_"Yeah?" He replied, not really wanting to talk to anyone at that moment. He just wanted to be alone long enough to reach some measure of peace after all that had happened but he cared enough to let her at least try and talk to him._

_"__Do you want to talk__?" She asked calmly, trying her best not to make him get any angrier or sadder than he already probably was. In the small forest behind her, a cold breeze had begun to blow with the scent of the coming rainfall__ despite the fact it had already rained so much today. The clouds above were growing darker and darker by the moment, a sign that it wouldn't be too long before they opened up once again and began to weep together with the village that they covered.__She knew this but all she cared about was being with him at that moment; she wanted to protect him because she knew that no one else could right then. No one else could really understand the Kyuubi no kitsune like she could._

_"I don't know.__ I wouldn't know what to talk about even if I tried, Hinata.__" For the first time since he heard her approaching, he turned to face her. His eyes were a deep shade of crimson as the anger that he felt manifested itself little by little but they did not seem enraged like usual, but rather there were the tiniest tears rolling down from either one. His cheeks were already red, not from his chakra but from having cried his eyes out time and time again in the last day as he sat up here so high above the rest of the village. Her heart couldn't help but break a little inside for him as she watched him; Naruto had always been so strong but this had utterly broken him like nothing else could._

_She walked up to him cautiously, staring him straight in those blood-red eyes as she approached._

_Without saying a word, she just wrapped her arms around his waist and held him there. Once again, he began to cry freely, a sign that his humanity wasn't completely gone but just hidden barely below the surface. _

_They stood there together for what felt like an eternity for him before he was finally ready to open up to her. He didn't know how to tell her what was going on in his mind__ it was nothing but a mess of jumbled and disorganized thoughts that rolled together like one gigantic whirlpool as it drained out of him.__ Slowly but surely, one single thought began to rise to the surface above all the rest so he decided to tell her it instead of trying to figure out just what he was feeling. _

_"Jiraiya told me a story last month when I asked him to tell me more about who I really was." Naruto murmured as she pulled her head back enough to gaze into his eyes. They were slowly fading back to the beautiful shade of blue that belonged on his face instead of the crimson they had been. "It was the story of the night I was sealed and the day he brought me to Kushina."_

_Thirteen years earlier._

The forest erupted in the screams of another two dozen dying shinobi as the monstrous demon queen Kyuubi no Yoko slashed through one more line of trees in the forest on the outskirts of village of Konohagakure no Sato. With just a simple swipe of her left paw, another group of trees and the few jonin and chunnin that hid amongst their bows were reduced to splintered branch and splattered blood.

Against the awesome might and size of such an unholy fiend... such a monster, even the most elite of Konoha's jonin were nothing but a herd of lambs to be slaughtered.

Minato covered his mouth with his free hand as he cradled the newborn infant in his other, trying to force the scent of blood that hung heavy in the air from his lips and nostrils. All around him, the screams of _his_ villagers filled him with a grave sense of dread: one not for his own death but for the fear that he was too late to save anybody but the women and children who now huddled in fear at the base of the mountain where his face had been carved earlier that year. Why in the name of the shinigami was such a horrid creature attacking them? They had not done a thing to provoke her, not a thing to bring about her fatal wrath and yet here she was, destroying each and every one of Konoha's ninja that it could find.

The Yondaime looked down at the small little child that lay cradled in his left arm, a beautiful little baby boy with the tiniest cute little whisker marks on his cheeks and a tuft of blood red hair on the top of his head that put even the Kyuubi's crimson fur to shame.

A day earlier, he had found this little child alone near the natural hot spring near his manor, crying loudly for his parents. Strangely enough, no one in the village had reported a missing child and none of the newborns that had been reported in the census he had conducted earlier that year matched this one's description. So, Minato had taken the boy as his own for the time being despite knowing nothing about the tiny little baby beside his hair color.

Yet, with the situation that was taking place before them, Yondaime was starting to think he knew just why the Kyuubi was here.

'_It's her son…. That-that's the only explanation!_' Minato exclaimed inside, staring once more from the baby in his arms to the gargantuan beast that was decimating the ranks of jonin that were trying their utmost to stop it. It all made sense now; something that fearsome, something that completely enigmatic would only attack someone or someplace if it was protecting its child. He had heard the legends of the tailed beasts and their ability to take a human form but he had never thought that the Kyuubi would actually change into one, especially not to give birth when she would be most vulnerable. And since he was carrying the nearly newborn infant in his arms, it was only a matter of time before she picked up the child's scent and spotted the leader of the Namikaze clan. "Commander Umino, form your squadron around me!"

Immediately, one of the few ANBU squadrons with all their members still standing appeared beside him, led by Sado Umino and his wife and second in command Nois Umino.

"What are your orders, Lord Hokage?" Commander Sado asked from behind his porcelain serpent mask, his voice wavering as a sign of his obvious exhaustion in this battle. Beside him, his subordinates were all panting heavily at least two of the three of them were bleeding from various scars and slices all over their bodies. They all looked as though they were all just barely remaining on their feet but Minato knew that their resolve would not falter, even if it meant their deaths here tonight. The Yondaime prayed it would not come to that as it had with so many others so far but he was not stupid.

"I have a plan to stop it but I need your help." Minato Namikaze's voice was as iron and steeled as his will.

"Speak and we will obey." Umino and his subordinates knelt before their fearless leader, showing the respect and honor of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai and their dedication to the village they had sworn to protect.

"I think the Kyuubi is here for this child. If so, when I offer it to her she should retreat. If not, be prepared to retrieve the child and take it to Kushina Uzumaki in Kirigakure no Sato." He replied simply, his eyes watching the massive thrashing kitsune in the distance. Without even acknowledging their answer of obedience, he took a kunai out with his free hand and sliced a thin cut into his cheek. "Tell her I always wanted a family…"

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

_Two weeks later_

"Minato asked ANBU to bring this child to you… Ms. Uzumaki. It was his last request." Jiraiya spoke as he placed the tiny little baby into her arms, taking care not to unwrap the boy from the blanket he was sleeping soundly in. Kushina's eyes went wide and misty as the Toad Sage told her of her lover's fate protecting the village he had loved so much. Jiraiya had been one of only three people who had known of the relationship his favorite pupil had shared with this young redheaded woman. They had made a beautiful couple but his village had needed him more and she just could not leave her home and so here she was. "His wanted you to know that he really did want a family with you, Kushina."

She gazed down at the precious sleeping child, a perfect boy with three tiny whisker marks on each cheek and a head of messy blonde hair much like Minato's but with a single line of crimson right down the left side of his head, the only remaining evidence of who's child it really was. Her heart broke as she looked upon him, the boy whose body was now a container for the Kyuubi's chakras thanks to the seal that the late Hokage had put upon his stomach when he died. He was so young and small and yet already had endured so much hardship. The tears that she had fought back since she saw Jiraiya coming finally began to fall freely.

"I can understand if can't deal with this right now, Kushina." Jiraiya murmured but it had only taken a second for her to make up her mind as she shook her head and smiled.

"My little Naruto…" She whispered as cradled the baby in her arms.

"Do you... know what you're getting yourself into?" The sannin asked but his words drowned out in her mind.

"…I'm your mother…"

* * *

Author's Note: Well there you have it, the prologue of this little tale. In case you're wondering about how I said Naruto's hair was red in the beginning but now it's blonde with a little red streak, it's because the seal that Yondaime used to seal up the Kyuubi also transferred a very little bit of Minato's chakra into his body as well and that affected his appearance.

Well I'm out. Review honestly and I'll be starting on the first chapter later on today. Peace.


	2. Chapter 1: The Fox and The Hound

Author's Note: Well the story officially kicks off now since I actually got done with the prologue two days ago. As previously stated, this is completely AU in a world where Naruto is not really the Yondaime's child but rather the female (not male) Kyuubi's. Kushina Uzumaki is still alive so he will have a mother. Also, after this chapter the story will begin to take place throughout the main time frame as the series.

"I…" indicates speech.

_'I…'_ indicates inner thought.

_**'I…'**_ indicates conversation with Kyuubi.

* * *

Do You

* * *

Chapter 1: The Fox and the Hound

It was impossible to see any glimmer of the sun today because of the dense blanket of charcoal and smoke gray clouds that had laid itself out over the village of Konohagakure no Sato, which seemed only that much more appropriate to the boy. After all, a week earlier he had been enjoying a wonderful little rainfall back in Kiri while he and all of his friends played shinobi in expectation for entering the Academy at the start of the year and now here he was, hundreds of miles away from his home in some horribly foreign village preparing to attend another hidden village's academy with a classroom of unfamiliar other kids. The gray, foreboding clouds were the first common thing that he had seen since he had arrived here. As he pushed the goggles he wore on his forehead back into place, he could only sarcastically wonder what kind of justice that was.

"Naruto? Are you ready to go?" His mom called from outside his door.

"Just a second!" He took one last second to glance at himself in the mirror, looking at the eight-year-old that grinned back at him behind a pair of cool blue eyes. On his forehead, Naruto wore a pair of goggles strapped to a black cloth band to push back his spiky disheveled hair. In the middle of the space between the eye pieces, the four waves that symbolized the Land of Water had been engraved into the metal. He had on a black t-shirt pulled over his chest with an unzipped thin orange and black jacket on top of that coupled with a pair of matching pants. On the back of the jacket was a tremendous spiral set in a deep shade of blue which his mom had put there because she said it reminded her of her home back in the Land of Whirlpool.

"I swear that if you're not at the door in ten seconds I'm going to leave without you!" She hollered.

"I'm ready!" He replied, nearly busting through the doorway as he pushed his goggles up one last bit. From the front door of their secluded little house at the back of the Hokage's manor, Kushina Uzumaki looked at her eager, cheery adopted son as he raced up to her. To her, his youthful enthusiasm, even regarding the fact that they were so far from his home, was something to envy. After all, it was a trait he shared with the man that had sealed him. It was sad that he would probably never even learn who that man was.

"Well look at you! You look you're ready to go off and join the Seven and fight off all of the enemies you meet!" She said jokingly as she knelt down to wrap him up in a warm hug, twirling the red streak of hair at the front of his spiky mane as she did so. The Seven – being the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist – were a group of highly powerful and specialized jonin from Kirigakure appointed by the Mizukage, like an advanced ANBU group. "Next thing I know, you'll be asking for a Zanbatō and trying to perform the Kirigakure no Jutsu."

He flashed her a tremendous smile as he pushed the single strand of hair back into its spike in the center of his head. "Not a chance! I'm gonna be the Mizukage himself and be stronger than the Seven!"

She loved his unflinching ability to make her smile. All he had to do was speak about who he would be when he grew up and it could bring the greatest grin to her face as she listened. She knew that if anyone could achieve such grandiose plans for their own life, it would be Naruto because he just would not allow himself to believe anything else. In that, in his self-demand to succeed or die trying, he was just like the Minato she used to know so long ago in another time of her life.

"Well let's go, Naruto." She said as she stood up, taking his hand. "Before we take you down to the Academy to register with the rest of the new class today, we need to stop off because the Hokage would like to speak with you."

"Really? Why would he wanna speak to me?"

"Well… He's a friend of Jiraiya's and Jiraiya loves to talk about you." Kushina replied hesitantly as they walked on toward the building housing the Hokage's office. She had promised herself that she would not tell Naruto who Minato was so that he would not bring attention to himself he didn't need by claiming to be the son of Konoha's Yellow Flash. It was understandable then he would not know much about the Hokage or the old man's intentions in wanting to speak with Naruto before he began to become a ninja. "…Since Jiraiya's probably told him all sorts of things about you and how you're the best kid around, I think that the Sandaime Hokage just wants to meet you personally to see what kind of person you are. He's a good Kage and very friendly to his villagers and you're one of them now, kiddo."

"Well that's okay I guess." Naruto replied. "As long as it doesn't take too long, I guess. I just want you to be there when I register so I can show you what I learned to impress the Academy's entrance judges!"

"Oh? You learned something special?" She asked, genuinely surprised at her son's words. He had been secretive lately but she had just thought it to be a little bit of anger at the fact they had moved. Yet if he had been practicing on his shuriken toss or learning a little bit of chakra control, then he would already be attracting the eyes of the village, which they did not need. "What is it?"

"I can't tell ya! You'll just have to wait to see it but I can guarantee you'll be amazed!"

"Okay, Naruto. As long as it isn't anything dangerous, I can't wait to see it." She replied as they turned the corner only to arrive at the front gates of the Hokage's tremendous office.

As she had expected, Sarutobi was already standing out front waiting for them, a steady plume of wispy silver smoke pouring from the weathered pipe that protruded from his mouth. At his right, Jiraiya was standing patiently, having been waiting to speak to her for the better part of the week already now. The Toad Sage had not changed much since Minato had first introduced him to her a good decade ago; he was still the same overtly perverted yet supremely wise old man that had accidentally 'arrived' just when she and the Yondaime were enjoying themselves in a hidden hot springs back in Kirigakure. Minato had nearly killed him for that but after Jiraiya apologized profusely, she and the sannin had become decent friends. For the last eight years though, he had taken less of friend role and become more of a father-in-law to her and a grandfather to Naruto, helping her carry out Minato's last wish as best he could. For all Naruto knew, he was Kushina's father since she had never told him his 'dad' was. Which, of course, was why…

"Grandpa Jiraiya!" Naruto exclaimed as he ran over to the white-haired sannin.

"Heya! How's my favorite grandson?" Jiraiya asked, giving the rambunctious eight-year-old a massive hug as Sarutobi looked on with a sly and wizened smirk. Meanwhile, Kushina was preparing herself for the conversation that she knew had been coming since the day they had begun to leave Kiri. After all, this was the village where the Kyuubi had attacked instead of some mist-covered little island five hundred miles away. They knew there was a child that housed the legendary kitsune. "Look at you, Naruto! You've gotten even bigger than you were the last time I saw you!"

"Just wait and see! I'll be even taller than you when I grow up."

"I can believe that. You'll be a ninja giant, at least fifteen feet tall!" Jiraiya replied with a laugh. "Naruto, I want you to meet a very good friend of mine and the Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. This is Sarutobi, the Sandaime."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto." Sarutobi said as he took Naruto aside; leaving Kushina to speak with Jiraiya alone so they could talk about the thing inside Naruto and how it would probably put him in danger now, especially with him beginning as a ninja. They had decided not to tell Naruto exactly what he was – that he was not really Kushina's son but rather the offspring of the queen of the tailed beasts – until he was at least thirteen and old enough to understand. "My ex-student tells me that you're going to be joining the Academy today."

"Your ex-student?" Naruto asked questioningly.

"Sorry. I used to be Jiraiya's sensei back when he was a genin so many years ago." Sarutobi responded with a smile. "So are you excited to be joining the ranks of the Konoha shinobi?"

"I kinda wish I was going to Kiri with my friends. Sagara and I were going to become part of the Seven Swordsmen but… it looks like I can't anymore…" Naruto answered, casting his eyes down on the ground as he thought about a friend he might not see again now that they were both becoming ninja soon for different villages. His mom had started introducing him to the world of the shinobi earlier this year by showing him how to throw kunai and shuriken somewhat but what she didn't know what that Jiraiya had been teaching him to control his chakra since he was five. He told him that, with the talent he had already, he was probably stronger than most basic genin. "Mom says you wanted to talk ta me because I'm one of the new villagers."

"Well she's right, Naruto." Sarutobi said, smiling broadly as another puff of smoke drifted from the pipe in his mouth. "Jiraiya talks about you all the time whenever I see him so I just wanted to see the grandson he loves to mention when he's here in Konoha. I see he's not exaggerating; I think you're going to be quite the ninja."

"…Thank you, Mr. Hokage."

"You don't have to call me Hokage, Naruto. Just call me Sarutobi. Now, I have something to ask you."

"What do ya need?"

"Jiraiya tells me you have a very interesting marking on your chest…"

"You mean the symbol my mom gave me because of our clan?" Naruto replied. Even though Kushina was not going to tell him about the Kyuubi until he was older, she still had to make up a good excuse about why exactly he had a massive seal tattooed into the center of his stomach unlike every other child he had met. So, instead of telling him it was keeping his real mother's chakra locked inside of his body, she had made up a tiny little lie by saying that it was the Uzumaki mark for all the males of her clan. Luckily enough for her, she had separated herself far enough from the rest of her family when she had become a kunoichi and left them behind back in the Whirlpool Country. "She says that we're part of the clan's nobility and that the mark indicates it."

"Is it now? Well that's fantastic!" Sarutobi spoke, though he knew the truth of the matter. "Naruto, I'm going to tell you a little secret about some of the people in this village. You need to make sure that you do not show them that mark or tell them about it, even the adults."

"Why not?"

"Well my boy, I guess you could say that the members of the individual clans in this village can be kind of jealous of the members of other clans, especially the important ones like yourself. So you need to make sure they don't know about that mark because if they did, they might be mean to you and I don't want to see that happen."

"Really?" Naruto asked incredulously. He had never met anyone from any other clans except for a few of the kids that he played with back in Kiri and they had always been nice to him but this was an entirely different village so he guessed it wasn't completely impossible that they'd be mean. It just didn't seem like something that could really be true though. "But mom said the people in this village were nice…"

"Most of them are, Naruto. But there are some that won't accept you if you show them who you are…"

"Sorry to interrupt, Lord Hokage, but there is a matter that requires your attention." Without a sound, a masked shinobi appeared at Naruto's side, accompanied by a cloud of acrid and sulfuric smelling smoke. He wore a basic flak jacket and uniform just like all the other Konoha-nin that Naruto had seen since they arrived in the village but he had a basic face mask that covered his mouth and nose. His hitai-ate was pulled down over his left eye so Naruto could not see anything really that distinguishing about him besides his faded-looking gray hair. All in all, the shinobi seemed very mysterious, especially because of his appearance. "It seems that there is an issue within the compound of the Uchiha family that-"

It was then that he noticed the mostly blonde-headed boy standing beside him.

"Oh yes of course. Naruto, this is one of the village's jonin: Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi, this is one of our newest villagers: Naruto Uzumaki." Sarutobi responded, introducing the two of them. "Now, Kakashi, what was it you needed to tell me?"

"With all due respect, Lord Hokage, I do not believe that we should speak in public about this matter as it may require the direct attention of ANBU." Kakashi answered after looking down to Naruto and flashing him what Naruto could only assume was a smile because of how his eye closed like he was grinning. "I need to discuss this with you in private, sir."

"Very well. Naruto, it's been a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to you becoming a great ninja!" The Sandaime finished with a courteous and generous bow accompanied by another wizened old smile from behind his pipe. Even though Naruto had just met the man, he liked him because he was not like most of the old people that he had met so far but a little bit like Jiraiya instead with how he hadn't stopped smiling and didn't talk to him like he was a child. For some reason, the boy just felt like he could trust this new Hokage. But then again, his mom had told him that he really did care for his villagers unlike the mostly corrupt Mizukage back in Kirigakure. "Would you tell your mother to just ask if she needs anything for me?"

"Will do!" Naruto replied with a big thumbs-up as he turned and ran back to where Jiraiya and his mom were still talking in hushed tones. "Mom, old man Sarutobi said just ta ask if ya need anything."

"Naruto, call him Lord Hokage." Kushina responded, blushing with a laugh at her son's name for their new Kage.

"But he said I could call him Sarutobi."

"Okay but at least call him Mr. Sarutobi. He is your elder, after all." Kushina finished as she took Naruto's hand and turned her attention back to her son's grandfather. "Well I think we're done here. Jiraiya, are you going to accompany us to get Naruto registered for the Academy?"

"Yeah Grandpa! You've gotta see what I'm gonna do!" Naruto chimed in merrily.

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Jiraiya boomed merrily as he danced about like some deranged kabuki actor across the courtyard in front of the Hokage's office. These little displays always made Naruto laugh which is why he continuously did them whenever he was around; well that and he always thought it turned the ladies on to see a man not afraid to strut his stuff in the most traditional way imaginable. That latter reason, though, was something that Kushina knew all too well about and, as such, continuously yelled at him for doing in front of her son. "And after we've got you enrolled in the Academy, how about I take you out for a big bowl of ramen, Naruto?"

As they walked to the Academy, the Jinchūriki felt really happy for the first time since they left Kiri.

_The Konoha Ninja Academy_

"Now when I call your name, step forward and throw the three shuriken provided for you at the target in front of you." The academy trainer chunnin said with a bored stare as he watched the nearly fifty or so children test out their basic abilities to see if they could even be admitted. Naruto stood almost at the back of the line, waiting impatiently for his chance to finally show off the technique he had been working on for the whole last month in preparation for this little test. Even though he wasn't taking it in Kiri, he was still going to show off. And as luck had it, he had precisely the perfect amount of shuriken and there was a small coy pond next to them that would provide more than enough water for him to do his thing.

"Dear Kami, this line is taking forever to move! I wanna go already!" Naruto exclaimed somberly as another kid, a seemingly silent little boy with sunglasses on that he had heard called Shino, stepped up to the line to have his three throws.

"Me too! I can't wait 'cause I'm gonna become an amazing ninja and be the strongest fighter in the entire village." Said the boy directly in front of him the same sound of exasperation that Naruto had just used. He turned around as Naruto looked up to see a boy about his age with wild brown hair and almost feral yet, at the same time, cheerful eyes. He had two red lines on his cheeks, one on each side of his face and wore a black shirt with a pair of black pants as though he were already trying to be a ninja. Though the boy's appearance struck Naruto as a little weird and almost animalistic, the strangest thing about the kid was that he had the cutest little gray-furred puppy resting on top of his head. "Ain't that right, Akamaru?"

As if on cue the puppy yipped a happy reply.

"Uh… What the heck?" Naruto asked incredulously as he turned his wide-eyed stare from the tiny puppy to its apparent owner. "What's… with the dog?"

"Oh him? This is Akamaru and he's my companion. The name's Kiba Inuzuka." The boy replied, carefully picking up the puppy from its resting place on top of his head to show him to Naruto. Although the puppy seemed incredibly small – which made Naruto think it was still a very young pup – it didn't act scared or nervous around the new person but more like an excited and energetic little ball of fur as he started to try to jump around in Kiba's arms. Kiba, meanwhile, just laughed about his canine partner's behavior. "I'm from the Inuzuka clan so he's my friend for the rest of my life!"

"Can… he understand you?" Naruto asked.

"Of course; it's not like he's stupid or anything." Kiba exclaimed merrily as he scratched the top of Akamaru's head. The pup, however, looked up at its master with a slightly narrowed gaze and barked a single, dismissive little bark before turning his attention to Naruto. To the blonde-headed boy, it seemed as though he was annoyed by what Kiba had just said. "What? I said you weren't stupid. I was just answering his question! Great, now he's pissed at me. Thanks a lot… uh what was your name again?"

"Oh, it's Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be the Mizukage of Kiri one day!" Naruto almost shouted cheerfully. "And don't you forget it, either!"

"Kiri? Why would you want to be the Kage there?"

"I'm from Kiri; Mom and I just moved here 'cause she wanted me ta attend the Academy in this village, she said." Naruto replied, frowning slightly. "So we moved here earlier this week…"

"Gee, that really sucks…" Kiba murmured as they both took another step forward as the line moved again. "But I guess you can always go back there and become the best in that village. As for me, I'm gonna be the Hokage and even outdo The Professor himself!"

"Who's The Professor?"

"You don't know who The Professor is?" Kiba responded amazed. Naruto simply shook his head and shrugged, causing the spiked crown on top of his head to go swaying as he tilted to the left a little bit. This caused Kiba to chuckle a little at the blonde in front of him, making Naruto start to laugh too. "Oh yeah, you're not from around Konoha, right? The Professor is the current Hokage, the Sandaime. My Mom told me that the ninja of the village refer ta him as The Professor because he apparently knows every single jutsu that has been made by a Konoha-nin. It's supposed to be a nickname of honor or something like that, she said."

"Really? That's cool!" Naruto answered back, perking up as the smile returned to his face after the memories of Kiri killed it a moment earlier. If Old Man Sarutobi was really as intelligent and good at jutsu as Kiba had just told him, Naruto could only hope that maybe he could get him to teach him some cool techniques and then he could do even more even without being a genin yet. Coupled with meeting this newfound friend of his, the move was starting to look a little bit better. "You know, if you become the Hokage of this village when I become the Mizukage back home in Kiri, then we could join forces to lead the strongest ninja army anyone has ever seen!"

"Hmm… Yeah! That'd be awesome! We could totally kick anyone else's butt if they tried to attack us or our villages!" Kiba quipped with a giant grin, giving him a thumbs-up. "Definitely, we're gonna be Kage!"

"It settles it then; we're gonna make a pact right now to become Kage one day."

"Agreed, Naruto! Onward ta becomin' ninja legends!"

"Yeah right; you two losers probably won't get even get admitted into the Academy," Retorted an annoying little black-haired boy from about two kids behind them. "I wouldn't be surprised if you can't even throw the shuriken at the target without falling on your faces!"

"Shut up, Sasuke! Just because our siblings aren't in ANBU doesn't mean we can't kick your stuck-up butt if we need to, Uchiha-brat!" Kiba spat back with Akamaru barking right along beside him from on top of his head. The boy, Sasuke, just shot a bunch of evil glares their way from behind another candidate but Naruto could not help but laugh at how stupid he was. The boy had not yet seen what Naruto had prepared for this little test and when he did, he would be in no place to talk. "Don't pay him any mind, Naruto. He's an Uchiha and thinks that anyone not in his clan is a piece of trash to be walked on, especially with his brother Itachi being recruited by ANBU back when he turned thirteen. Besides, he won't be talking when he sees what I've got planned for this thing."

"You're plannin' on showing off too?" Naruto asked in a now-whispered tone so that the raven-headed annoyance couldn't hear them talking. "I thought I was the only one since all I've seen so far is kids just tossing the shuriken like a throwing card…"

"No way! This is our only chance to show what we can do before we get in the Academy and they start telling us what we can and can't do! I've got a little trick I've been gettin' ready for nearly two months now. Mom taught me some chakra control back during last fall and I've been perfecting this little trick ever since! Let's just say you can get ready to be amazed!"

"We'll see. I've got something planned as well."

"Well it looks like we'll see it real soon, Naruto. It looks like I'm up next." Kiba finished.

Naruto turned his attention toward the candidate in front of Kiba to see a girl with a head short cut dark hair and gray eyes finishing up her final throw. All three of her shuriken had hit the target that the instructors had set up twenty feet away but none of them were close to the bulls-eye but rather scattered all about the target like most of the other potential candidates' throws. She seemed to be intensely focused on the path the little four-pointed knife had taken as it flew through the air and into its painted straw destination, as though she were reading the very air currents that it cut through to try and analyze some deeper meaning to why it flew how it flew. Although this seemed wholly boring to Naruto, he was still starting to smile wildly because after Kiba it was his turn and he could finally show his mom and grandpa what he had wanted to for the whole last month since he had first learned the technique.

"Thank you, Hinata. Kiba Inuzuka, throw your shuriken." The instructor said dully, as if cursing whatever god had delegated such a boring task on him.

"Naruto, could you hold Akamaru for me. Oh, and while you're doing that, watch this." Kiba spoke with a smirk, handing the gray puppy to Naruto before stepping up to the line.

Holding the three shuriken between his index and middle finger, Kiba closed his eyes and brought his hands together in the tiger configuration hand-sign for a moment before relaxing his body. After he did this, he carefully put one shuriken between each of his fingers and then, with the quickest flicker of his wrist, launched them at the target.

The instructor stood there wide-eyed and dumbfounded, just like the better majority of the other candidates and their parents.

"HAH! All the way into the wall!" Kiba shouted as he burst into laughter, taking Akamaru back into his arms and dancing with the puppy merrily. Not only had he succeeded in throwing all three of the shuriken at the same time, not only had the shuriken hit their intended target all in very good positions around the bulls-eye in the center, but they had also tore right through the straw like tissue paper and lodged themselves into the wall ten feet behind the target, which just happened to be made of solid brick. Naruto could not help but laugh along with his new friend and join the celebration; it was as good of a trick as the one he had ready next. "Naruto, as I'll probably be saying until we both become Kage, beat that!"

"With pleasure!" Naruto replied, taking his spot on the line as the instructor regained his composure and thanked Kiba for his throw.

"Naruto Uzumaki, throw your shuriken."

"Now it's your turn to watch, Kiba." Naruto shouted cheerfully, tossing the three metal shuriken high up into the air above him before bringing his hands together.

_'Ram, Snake, Tiger, and Water.'_ He chanted those same four symbols in his head as his hands went through the signs he had practiced at least a thousand times since he first learned the technique earlier in the previous month. They were second nature to him already but he still chanted them along silently as his hands acted on their own accord, signing in perfect rhythmic synchronization with the pulsing flow of chakra he could feel coursing through each and every part of his body. For someone of his age, this jutsu was of an almost unheard of level of difficulty but he was not just any kid, he was going to be the best and no one could stop him even if they wanted to. As he lifted his left arm up high and brought his right fist in front of his chest, he finally announced the name of the jutsu, shouting it at the top of his lungs like a battle cry.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The tiniest ripples spread across the coy pond next to him as every eye watched Naruto and the two perfect water clones that now stood on either side of him each caught one of the three shuriken and, in complete harmony, launched the knives at the center of the target with uncanny accuracy.

"The water… clone technique…" Kushina murmured from beside Jiraiya, amazed at her son's flawless high genin-level jutsu. "His chakra… can't be that high…"

"Kiba, I think I mighta got ya beat." Naruto finished as he stepped away from the line, the clones dispersing into a fine mist throughout the air. Without missing a beat, he and Kiba began to laugh hysterically happily together again while their instructor and the crowd still stood their shocked. It had worked just like Naruto knew it would. He was already well on his way to proving that he was the best ninja this village would ever see.

Meanwhile, Kushina and Jiraiya just stood back and watched as the kitsune child rejoiced at his success.

_'__Could it be... hers?__' _The mother Uzumaki silently asked herself as she stared at her son in shock and awe.

* * *

Author's Note: Well there's chapter one for you folks. Just as a little heads up, the next chapter will roughly begin where the anime did (perhaps just a little earlier). Tsukiko, thanks for the review. It's always good to know that someone likes my stuff. Oh and as a note in case anyone is wondering, this will _**not**_ be a yaoi or anything. Kiba and Naruto are just natural friends so get your minds out of the gutter. lol 

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and I'll be back soon with chapter two. Peace.


	3. Chapter 2: My Favorite Lie

Author's Note: Back again with a new (and rather long this time around) chapter. To those of you who reviewed, thanks for the input. Also, since I have yet to put up a disclaimer, in order to prevent my butt from possibly being sued I am hereby currently stating that I do not own Naruto or the characters contained therein. However, the plot line is of my own imagining.

"I…" indicates speech.

_'I...' _indicates inner thought.

_**'I…' **_indicates conversation with Kyuubi.

Also please note that, from now on, any break or timeskip during a chapter will be represented by a (I)

* * *

Chapter 2: My Favorite Lie

* * *

"Come on, Naruto! We're gonna be late _again_ if you don't pick up the freaking pace!" Kiba shouted back as he and Akamaru ran on a good forty feet in front of his soon-to-be genin best friend and greatest rival. They were about a half a mile still away from the simplistic little campus where the many future shinobi and kunoichi of Konoha village prepared themselves for their lives as ninja and, at that very moment, they were approximately four minutes and thirty-six seconds from being late for what would be the fifty-fourth time since this year had started. "If I'm late to my own genin exam, Hana will Kumara bite off a chunk of my ass as payback and I can't afford to buy another new set of pants!"

"I'm going as fast as I can, dog boy!" Naruto retorted, sprinting across the cobblestones that paved the back alley they were currently making their way through. "I can't run on all fours like you!"

It had been about three and a half years since he and his mother had moved to Village Hidden in the Leaves, three and a half years since he had met his best friend Kiba Inuzuka and his other friends Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akamichi and Hinata Hyuga as well as the Sandaime and his grandson Konohamaru, and three and a half years since he first saw the woman he swore would one day fall madly in love with him: Sakura Haruno. However, as the last one still viewed him as nothing other than a loser of a fellow classmate while she was making furi kuri eyes at the self-absorbed punk of their class Sasuke, he had always had some serious trouble convincing Kiba that his dream would become reality one day. Yet even with being ignored by the one girl he liked, the now twelve-year-old Naruto Uzumaki had settled into his life in Konoha quite comfortably and now called this place as much of a home as Kiri ever was.

"Don't start hating me because you suck!" Kiba hollered back with a hearty laugh, turning his head around for the briefest moment to stick his tongue out at the blonde-haired knucklehead ninja that was falling even further behind him. However, it was only a moment as he stopped paying attention to the narrow alleyway they were running through just a split second before...

"Hah!" Naruto responded with a hearty laugh as he leapt over Kiba, who was now sprawled about on the cobblestone, having tripped over the edge of a trashcan his right foot caught while his head was turned. He was already climbing back to his feet but it was just enough time to give Naruto the chance to focus his chakra and bound up onto the roof of the building to their right. Every morning, especially on mornings when they were running late, he and Kiba made a contest out of their race to school, usually ending with Kiba winning ever since he had learned his beast mimicry technique and started running on all fours. As these races usually involved a little wager between the two of them – like the loser buying their weekly ramen or having to let Shikamaru test his newest paper bomb on them – Naruto was tired of coming in second. Today was the day that he would beat him. "Eat my dust, Kiba! See ya at the Academy!"

"No way in hell!" Kiba roared as he and Akamaru broke into a dead sprint.

Kiba could smell Naruto's scent near because of how much adrenaline they were both pumping out but he had still lost sight of his friend and he would lose the race if he didn't run his lungs dead now. He refused to lose today!

Blocking out everything but his run, Kiba tore onto a main road, sliding sideways on all fours toward a wall opposite of the alley's exit while very nearly taking out three villagers standing there in the process. Luckily, he regained his balance just in time and leapt up onto the ledge above them, immediately starting to sprint again as though he were being chased by the best tracker-nin in Konoha. On the ground beneath him, the various people of Konoha that were unfortunate enough to be standing on or along this street this morning were cursing at him as he knocked off banners and plants from the ledge and into the street. Akamaru meanwhile, already panting heavily just like his partner, was following along on the ground below, his tail-wagging cheerfully at the fun that he was having with Kiba.

_'There's the Academy! I'm gonna beat that runt!' _Kiba screamed inside as he leapt high over a brick wall at the end of the street, landing in the small courtyard near the edge of the Academy grounds. Lucky for him, the window leading to their classroom had been left open this morning so, as he bent down and scooped up Akamaru into his left arm, he look one last flying leap at the window's edge.

The animal-like boy soared towards his target, his already ridiculously long jump even further augmented by his chakra and the beast mimicry technique he was using. All he had to do was stretch out his right arm and catch the window's ledge.

"Got it!" He shouted as he nearly launched himself through the window with the hand that caught the ledge. Akamaru was barking wildly at his owner's nearly psychotic method of entry but with his lungs screaming at him, Kiba landed in the classroom.

"Well hey there Kiba! I was wondering when you would make it," Said a drawing voice to his right from the middle of the crowd of students that were all staring at him. Without even turning to face the speaker, he already knew whose voice it was. The color rushed to cheeks as he tried to calmly walk over to his desk without any other potential embarrassment aside from the fact that he came in second to his blonde compatriot. "I've been waiting forever for you to get here!"

"Shut it, Naruto." Kiba replied flatly, plopping down in the seat beside the race's winner as Akamaru climbed up on top of his head and began to stretch. Seated side-by-side in the direct center of the classroom, the duo of troublemaking, prank-pulling, and nearly riot-causing jesters had become known as the Clowns of Konoha over the last three years. As of yet, they had successfully pranked or pissed off every instructor or proctor that their class had since the twenty or so students that shared the room with them had started in the Academy. And save Sasuke and the-ever-quiet Shino, they had earned the laughter or at least rude gestures of nearly every student since they had begun their quest for a higher ninja education. All that was left for the terrible twosome was to finish today and graduate as full-fledged genin. Even with both of them not being the two most intelligent students in the class, he had no doubts as to their predicted success thanks to their chakra and jutsu skills. It was already in the bag.

"Good morning class," Iruka Umino, the class' primary sensei of the last three years. He was a young, rather tall and lanky chunin that Naruto had met on his first day in the Academy. Despite the fact he had the unenviable job of instructing kids like Naruto and Kiba, who took it upon themselves to try to get a laugh at almost any available occasion, he was a very cheery and laid back sensei to the children he watched over. Thus, even though he never missed a chance to try and prank him, Naruto looked up to Iruka and considered him a good friend. "As all of you are already aware, today will your first chance to take the primary genin exam. I trust you all properly prepared?"

From behind Naruto's reclining form came a loud and disruptive snore as Shikamaru nearly woke up from his daily morning nap. This, of course, caused the better part of the class save Sasuke to laugh, including Iruka.

"Well it's always good to see Shikamaru contributing to our conversations." Iruka chuckled as he began to check the role of his students on what would be their last time together as one big group before the reality of the ninja world split them apart. "Anyway, moving on to the real purpose of today's class, today is the day of the genin selection exam as I previously stated. The rules of the exam are simple; you'll each go one at a time and get one single audition in the room across the hall with either Mizuki-sensei or myself. As it stands right now, there are a grand total of four teams that will be filled because of this exam. That means twelve of you will be becoming genin this afternoon and those of you who do not perform adequately enough will be required to complete another semester here at the Academy."

At least five students, a quarter of their happy little group, gulped noticeably which only made Naruto grin mischievously. He already knew that Kiba, Sasuke, Sakura, and probably Shikamaru would be his main challenges should it come down to one or the others. Yet even so, he still refused to worry about this.

"Let's do this thing!" Naruto cheer calmly as he leaned back in his chair and waited for his name to be called.

(I)

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Over the last hour, the room had already been whittled down to only three of its usual occupants as those that had already taken the test were forced to wait in a separate classroom. The tension and nervous energy in the air was nearly palpable as each and every of the other two kids in the room were silently pouring over the pages and pages of information they had recorded that year or going through the handsigns of whatever jutsu they thought might be covered in the exam. It was almost comical to hear their individual murmurs as they read back bits and pieces of study, leading to one massive, discordant choir of worried preteens.

He, however, was determined to just relax and take his exam which was why he just got up from his seat and strode calmly out of the classroom, not even bothering to take one final look at his soon-to-be ex-classmates.

"So how are you this morning, Iruka-sensei?" The blonde-haired kid asked nonchalantly as the scarred shinobi led him into one of the empty classrooms across the hall.

"Well, save the fact I have to fail at least eight of my students, I guess… meh, what can I say?" Iruka's voice was distant and hesitant as he grimaced noticeably, apparently lost in a memory of the recent week. Yet Naruto could tell what the issue was even without asking; he had become decent friends with his sensei over his time in Konoha because he and Iruka just saw eye-to-eye on a lot of matters. Well, they saw eye-to-eye on a lot of matters that did not involve Naruto setting up booby traps for him when he entered the classroom or disrupting the class with his and Kiba's jokes and pranks. And, as was the case between most friends, Naruto usually knew what was bothering Iruka whenever he was upset.

"Sado still giving you grief that you haven't applied for ANBU yet like the rest of your family?" Naruto tried, easily picking up on his sensei's personal problem as he took the empty seat in the middle of the classroom in front of Iruka.

"That's Mr. Umino to you," Iruka answered somewhat sullenly, turning his attention to the clipboard in front of him as a way of telling his pupil to drop the topic. Sado Umino, Iruka's father, was one of the higher-ranking officers of ANBU in recent history, retiring only a few years earlier back before Naruto had come to the village, and had always viewed a life in the village special operations forces as the highest honorable service one could perform for their village. Thus, as Iruka had told him once regarding the topic, Iruka's decision to become an Instructor at the Academy was not really viewed with the utmost respect from his dad. As it stood, both Sado and Iruka's mother were honored heroes while their son just toiled about to teach brats like Naruto. "But… Well anyways, your exam today will be a test of your basic jutsu, specifically ninjutsu and genjutsu. You must perform one technique from each category in order to be ranked in this exam. If you fail to complete these two, you automatically will receive a failing grade on this exam and be unable to graduate regardless of the number of other graduates."

"Whatever you say," Naruto replied cheerfully as he stood to his feet, silently noting Iruka's tendency to return to his serious tone when talking as an Instructor. "Just say when!"

"Very well. We will start with your genjutsu. You may begin when ready."

Naruto brought his hands together in the handsign of the rat as he gathered his chakra. Already he was starting to enjoy this test.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

As if rolling in on some unfelt wind, a thick mist began to seep in through the cracks under the door and the open window on the far side of the room. The fog spread out evenly, encircling both student and teacher as the world faded away into a cloud of gray. It was perfect because, even without having a heavy source of water around, the moisture in the air was enough for Naruto to make it too thick to even see three feet through with almost no effort. And, simply put, that was all he really needed for this technique because he was just using it as a shroud while he prepared his real genjutsu. So, without making a sound, he quickly performed another handsign and began to diffuse his chakra as best he could into the room around him.

His voice barely a whisper, Naruto murmured another technique; "Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu."

"That's enough, Naruto." Iruka said simply, his voice like a distant echo through the thick soup of a fog that veiled the two of them. "You may disperse your genjutsu now."

"Got it!" Within a few seconds, the fog spread out and dissipated from the room, revealing in its wake nothing more than a rather basic looking forest all around the two of them. Though it was pretty easy to see that this was all illusion, especially considering the fact that all the three trees around them looked one hundred percent identical, Naruto could not help but smirk in satisfaction as Iruka began to grin genuinely. "What do you think? I was thinking that I coulda used a little more sunlight in the garden but unfortunately that would block the view of the water feature I was thinking about adding later."

"Hah. Very good, Naruto," His sensei was beaming at the young rookie's innovative use of illusion. "You have definitely passed the genjutsu portion of the test. Now comes the ninjutsu."

"Would you mind if I kept the forest while I did this part? I'd rather you not be able to see what damage I've caused until I'm out of the room, okay Iruka-sensei?" Naruto replied with a laugh.

"Very well but I do not want to have to warn you about wearing your chakra reserves thin. If you start to feel exhausted, break the illusion and rest for a second because I will not take you to the Infirmary if you insist on showing off."

Naruto never understood why his instructors had always gone on and on about wearing one's chakra supply out because, quite frankly, he had never run out. He had always seemed to have more than enough chakra to perform any technique he had come across, with the only deciding factors in whether or not it succeeded being a. how hard the technique was and b. how bored or uninterested he was feeling at the moment. Now, especially since he had the perfect technique in mind for his ninjutsu and couldn't be more focused than he was at that moment, it didn't look like either issue was going to be a problem.

He went through the same familiar handsigns that had become second nature over the last three years, finishing on the symbol for water without so much as a twitch.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"You know, Naruto, vanity… is not a trait… that a ninja should aspire to." Iruka stammered out, glaring with a berated stare to one of the twenty-or-so water clones that were now lounging about in his student's artificial forest. Even though he – being very familiar with the technique since Naruto had used it on pretty much every ninjutsu exam since he began at the Academy – could already tell which one was real, he was having trouble stopping himself from just kicking the nearest clone he could find like a small soccer ball. It wasn't that this technique bothered him; in fact he was still quite impressed that Naruto could conjure that many clones at such an age considering it was a C-ranked technique. What really ticked him off, though, was the fact that two of them were using him as a leaning post while another one was crouching on his desk with his butt almost completely in Iruka's face. "I think… I've mentioned that to you… at least once!"

"Sorry Iruka-sensei." They all said in unison, each one scratching the back of his head at the same time. Without missing a beat, each and every one of the clones turned to him and formed the symbol for ram using their hands with a broad smile on their faces. "I know! I'll make it up to you! Transform!"

Iruka really hated Naruto's definition of a prank.

"Haremu no Jutsu!" Instead of twenty clones of Naruto Uzumaki standing in the classroom forest with him, there were now twenty beautiful, fully nude blonde bombshells hovering over him, each one of them posing like a centerfold model. Each one of them had the same whisker marks and striking blonde hair that Naruto had as well as his signature little red streak, albeit said streak was hanging as a little bang down to their chests from in front of their face to only further accentuate their outstandingly beautiful 'features'. As a group, they swarmed around the instructor, each one leaning in around him or his desk.

"…CUT THE CRAP, NARUTO!" He could feel the veins on either side of his forehead throbbing from annoyance as he smacked the real Naruto with one clean shot to the back of his head, dispelling the clones. Naruto, meanwhile, just burst into an uncontrollable fit of roaring laughter at the perfect reaction from his sensei.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, you just said to use a ninjutsu," Naruto chimed merrily, breaking the illusionary genjutsu in the room as he took his seat again. Even though the technique he had used was practically useless in a real battle unless his opponent was a pervert, it was still fun to use it, especially on such a straight-laced person like Iruka. "So was that enough or would you like to see more?"

"Naruto, since I'm going to smack you again if you're talking about your little 'technique', I'll assume you're talking about your use of ninjutsu as a whole. And, in that sense, yes; that was enough." Iruka finished as he walked over to the classroom door and opened it to escort him out of the spacious exam room. Together they walked a little further down the hallway, ending up in front of another one of the Academy's many lecture rooms. As Iruka opened the door, Naruto couldn't help but flash a tellingly mischievous smirk coupled with the same impish little gaze as Kiba's eyes met his. The canine child could help but start to chuckle lightly as he nodded in understanding, picking up on Iruka's unnecessary glare and the slight bump on the side of Naruto's head. "Please wait here, Naruto."

"It went perfectly." Naruto said, answering his friend's unasked question as he took a seat between Kiba and Hinata, who was blushing madly for some reason.

"You do the…?" Kiba asked as he stretched his arms back over his head.

"Yup. It never fails." Naruto laughed. One more student entered the room as he spoke, this one followed in by Mizuki and Iruka a few seconds later though the student refused to turn and acknowledge them as he made his way silently and somberly to a desk in the back of the room. _'Looks we've got one for the Academy's repeat semester. One down, seven to go before I'm definitely in the clear.' _The rambunctious shinobi thought silently, watching as his two sensei made their way to the desk at the front of the room with a pair of identical stone-faced gazes from each pair of eyes. On the teacher's desk sat a grand total of twelve forehead protectors, each of them cast in metal with the symbol of Konohagakure no Sato on them and all of them bound to the basic blue band that most of the ninja in the village wore. He could almost already sense the feel of one of them wrapped around his head but that might have been because he never took off his goggles…

"When I call your name, step forward to receive your hitai-ate and your promotion to the level of genin. Then I ask that you take your seat again and remain silent until the last one has been handed out." Iruka declared gravely. "Shino Aburame."

_'One.'_ Naruto counted in his head.

"Choji Akimichi."

_'Two.'_

"Sakura Haruno."

_'Three.'_

"Hinata Hyuga."

_'Four.'_

"Kiba Inuzuka." His fanged friend flashed a huge grin as he climbed to his feet and walked seriously down to the front of the classroom.

_'Five.'_

"Minoa Matsuda."

_'Six.'_

"Shikamaru Nara."

_'Seven.'_

"Shinobu Sagara."

_'Eight.'_

"Sasuke Uchiha." He may have hated the pretentious little punk with the better part of his energy but he _had_ expected Sasuke to pass the exam. After all, even though he was pretty much just a self-absorbed jerk – whom Naruto happened to pity greatly inside because of what had happened to Sasuke's clan a week after he had arrived in Konoha – to Naruto, he still had to acknowledge that Sasuke was the best when it came to their class in terms of grades. However, Naruto still thought he had him beat in jutsu knowledge.

_'Nine.'_

"Naruto Uzumaki." _'Yes!' _He had to stop himself from leaping from the chair when his name was called. Instead, he did exactly what Kiba had done and controlled his excitement long enough to walk down boldly and calmly to Iruka-sensei. Iruka was standing there with a broad enough smile on his face to rival his student's and nodded in congratulations as Naruto removed his goggles. Without saying a word, Iruka preceded to tie the headband around Naruto's forehead, just as he had done with each of the other graduates up to that point. So, still beaming but still silent, Naruto bowed politely and returned to his seat.

"Ino Yamanaka." One more walked down to receive their reward.

"Kaname Zaraki." Iruka finished, wrapping the last of the headbands around a silver-headed boy that Naruto had never really paid much attention to as he was almost always silent in class. With his task complete, the young sensei stepped around to the front of the desk with Mizuki-sensei following suit. His face was still locked in the same air of gravity that it had had during the entire proceeding but Naruto could tell that, behind the seriousness, his sensei was eager to finally get to see some of his charges join the ranks of the genin of Konoha. "To those of you who did not graduate this afternoon, I am sorry but you will have to complete another semester in the Academy and then you will be allowed to retake the exam for your graduation. To the twelve of you that did succeed in passing today, you will need to report back here in two days time for your team assignments but, other than that, congratulations. I commend all of you and look forward to seeing the excellent ninja you will all become."

"Give yourselves a hand, everyone. You've earned it." Mizuki said as he and Iruka began to clap, the graduates of the class breaking into a chaotic riot of cheers from all their pent-up energy.

_Outside the Academy_

_4:45 p.m._

Naruto smiled as he took one last long and reminiscent look back at the Academy, his mind flooded with a hundred different images of good times with his friends over the last three years. He and Kiba had been among the last students to leave following the exam and their graduation, the two of them sharing a long good laugh together while each performed his own version of the victory dance for the rest of the class. While the other kids roared with laughter at their ridiculous and awkward motions, Naruto had done a classical Kabuki dance that made him think of something his grandpa might do while talking. Yet even so, he just had fun with it. It was the last day of being just kids they had before the real world really set in and probably began to kick their individual butts silly.

"So we on for ramen at Ichiraku?" Kiba asked as they finally turned and exited the courtyard outside the school. The sun had begun to dip below the western horizon, casting the mostly red building in an eerie shadow that made it seem so much bigger than it actually was. From the edges where the light hit the building, Naruto could make out the silhouette of the Leaf Village symbol and smiled, reaching up to feel the edges of the same symbol as it covered his forehead. "'Cause I wanna stop by and surprise Hana and my mom first if we are going to get something to eat."

"Nah, not today, Kiba. I promised mom that I'd come straight home when I left the Academy today because she is throwing me a 'Congratulatory Dinner' tonight to quote her as a celebration of me becoming a genin." Naruto answered, stretching his hands back behind his head as they began to walk toward the main part of the town.

"Guess it's a good thing you passed, neh?"

"Yeah; really no pressure, right? I was actually thinking of putting my hitai-ate in my pocket when I get close and just look depressed when I walk in so she thinks I failed but something tells me she'd find a nice spot on the top of my head to release her anger for me tricking her." Naruto sighed.

"Well never mind then. I guess I'll just see ya tomorrow morning before we all get to meet our new Jonin-sensei." Kiba finished as he scratched the top of Akamaru's head, which was currently sticking out over the top of the boy's jacket just underneath Kiba's chin. "Let's get some dinner, Akamaru."

Naruto could only grin as he heard the almost always cheerful pup bark a merry response. Waving goodbye, he turned and began walking down the various back streets and alleyways he usually took to get to his home, avoiding the more busy avenues as he didn't want to risk getting distracted on his way. He still couldn't believe that he had actually made it and become a genin. It felt like only a day earlier he was taking one final look at the gates of Kiri before watching it sink away behind a heavy mist as he and his mother began the long journey to Konoha. When he looked back on the last three years of his life, he could not help but wish they had gone by at least a little slower… but that, unfortunately, was already in the past. And as such, there wasn't a single thing he could do to change it. So, caught up in a flood of memories and recollections, Naruto continued homeward.

Due to his being lost in thought, he didn't even notice when he bumped against his ebon-haired enemy while making his way down yet another alleyway.

"Watch it, loser." Sasuke spat out, disturbing Naruto's formerly peaceful train of thought.

The mostly scrawny blonde turned to see him leaning against the alley wall, the kind of glare that a puppy-killer might wear plastered on his face like a bad case of acne. The judgmental punk had always hated Naruto ever since they had first met outside of the Academy on their registration day but Naruto had to admit he had his fair share of reason for that issue. After all, ever since he first showed what he was capable of and shut Sasuke up, he and Kiba had taken it upon themselves to prank him or crack jokes about him at every turn. The only time they had cut him any slack at all was during the two months following what happened to his family and that was out of respect because they knew that there were some lines that should never be crossed.And thus, through a constant and unflinching death-glare he had watched the two jesters for the last three years.

"You say something, Saaasu-keee?" Naruto taunted, turning to face him.

"Yes you idiot; watch where you step!" Sasuke replied venomously, staring down the orange-clad genin.

"Why don't you watch where you lean then?" He asked innocently while smirking impishly. He was toying with Sasuke and having wicked fun doing it. It wasn't often that Sasuke ever said anything and even less frequent to hear him actually bother to yell at someone, especially Naruto.

"You think you're so goddamn funny but I've got news for you, Uzumaki; you aren't worth the dirt you walk on loser. So watch your step because I'm getting really tired of your crap."

"Know something Sasuke, just because you're the so-called 'genius' doesn't mean I can't kick your butt any day of the week. Now, go back to your _leaning _and bother someone else!" Naruto finished as he turned away from the one person he truly could say he could not stand.

Down one more street and he was standing at the entrance to the building he and his mom lived on top of in a cozy little apartment that suited him perfectly because the roof of it gave him a fantastic view of the whole of Konoha. They had lived there since about six months after they had first moved to the village and got themselves settled; his mother had not wanted to impose on the Hokage by staying at his residence, after all. So, for the last three years it had been home sweet home as he made his way to becoming the future Mizukage of Kiri.

"Well, well, well; if isn't the genin of the hour!" A familiar voice said from behind him as he reached for the door's handle.

"Grandpa!" Naruto exclaimed merrily, flipping around like a hurricane to face the perverted old hermit who was currently sitting on top of a gigantic red toad. As usual, he was wearing the basic gray and crimson kimono he seemed to favor so much along with his normal forehead protector with the word 'oil' carved in its kanji form in the center. Along his back he had two scrolls that were tied across his chest. His cheeks were slightly blushed and he was smiling broadly like a cheerful and merry little old man, which Naruto knew meant that he probably had a few cups of sake over the last few hours or two while he waited for his grandson. As such, it only made sense that he would be riding on one of his toads so he could just drink in peace while still going where he needed to go: which was currently to the Uzumaki residence. "When did you get in to town?"

"I've been in for about a day doing research for my latest book." He replied, stepping down from his perch upon the old silent toad and taking an ornately exaggerated pose like a Kabuki actor. "After all, I couldn't possibly miss my grandson becoming one of the esteemed ninja of Konohagakure no Sato. Speaking of which, good choice with the hiding your Illusion creation within the mist; it really was a great choice of genjutsu as I would expect from the best ninja there."

"Wait… How did you know what I used in the exam?" Naruto asked, confused. "Were… were you spying on me when I took it?"

"I was researching my new book; it's about a fantastically good looking Kunoichi who uses illusionary techniques to seduce her opponents! I just so happened to come across an open window where you were performing your exam during the course of my hunt for ideas!" Jiraiya answered with a sly grin. "Speaking of which, you may want to work on your trees a little."

"Yeah, yeah; whatever you say grandpa." He responded, rolling his eyes. "Well we should get home because Mom's throwing me a celebration tonight in honor of me passing and she'll be pissed if I'm later than I already am."

"Just a moment before we stop in on Kushina." He quickly countered, standing up straight as he instantly began to stare directly into the young shinobi's azure irises with the utmost of seriousness. "You've told me before that your best technique is probably your water clone… but what would you say its weaknesses are, based upon how often you've used it."

"Well… I guess I'd have to say the fact that my clones return to water if they get far away from me." He answered.

"As I thought."

Without another word, he quickly unlatched one of the two scrolls upon his back, taking the greatest of care to remove it from its belt-like bindings without tearing the paper. Naruto could tell just by looking at it that the thing was old, probably even ancient as the parchment that it was made from was faded to a deep shade of grayish beige and the dark green border that lined the paper was faded in some areas and still dark in others. Despite the scroll's obvious age though, it seemed to be in pristine condition and had been in excellent care, as though it were preserved like the ancient paintings of the previous Hokages and prominent village elders and councilmen that hung all throughout the Hokage Residence. Whatever was written on the scroll was very old and, because of the obvious care it had been handled with, probably very important.

"Consider this a little bit of a gift from Sarutobi and myself in honor of your graduation, kiddo." Jiraiya said soberly, handing it with the greatest of care to the genin in front of him. "Take care of it as though your life depended on it."

"Wow. What is it?" He asked, amazed. Though Jiraiya almost always brought gifts when he came to visit, most of the time they were just copies of his latest volume of Icha Icha for Naruto or Kiba or something like that that his mom would not approve of if she knew. Something of this gravity was not his style at all.

"That is a very special scroll. The Shodaime Hokage penned it himself more than a century ago to catalog and explain in detail the various techniques and jutsu he created at the height of his career in order to share his knowledge with the village he worked so hard with the Nidaime to build up. It is a list of every major jutsu he ever made as well as an explanation on how to perform it as well as the justu's effects, strengths and weaknesses."

"Are you serious?! Grandpa, you rock!" Naruto exclaimed merrily as he immediately wrapped up the silver-haired sannin in a tremendous hug.

"I thought you might like it." Jiraiya came back with, patting the boy on the head lovingly as he messed with his spikes. "You may want to pay close attention to the first technique outlined in the scroll: the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Something tells me it's going to be right up your alley."

"Thanks, Grandpa Jiraiya. I can't wait to show Mom!" Naruto finished as he nearly burst through the door to his house, Jiraiya following behind him.

(I)

_Uzumaki Residence:_

_11:25 p.m._

They were fighting again; fighting like they always did when they thought Naruto couldn't hear them.

Naruto sighed silently, casting his eyes down at the hardwood slats that lined the floor while watching the flickering lights of Konoha beneath his window. He was leaning against the door separating his room from the rest of the house, listening intently to the 'private conversation' as his mom always called it between her and his grandpa. Lately, they had begun having 'private conversations' more and more often whenever Jiraiya came to visit, especially when they thought he was sleeping. What really worried him was that their arguments all revolved around him.

"Kushina, I know this bothers you but I think you're overreacting abou-"

"Do you really think this to be a wise idea, Jiraiya?!" Kushina asked him fiercely, her voice a simplistic and hushed whisper as she wrapped her arms around her chest just to add emphasis to her point. Over the last twelve years since Naruto had come into her life and the complications of raising him as her own came with them, she had always told herself that, one day, she would be able to sit him down and just tell him the truth. But now, as he took his first true step away from her and into the world around him, she felt a worrisome, cold shiver crawling up and down her spine. She was horrified for him, horrified that he would discover what he really was and no longer be _her_ son. "I get it, he's a genin now but this seems far too risky, all things considered. This isn't some basic nin or genjutsu you're allowing him to learn; it's an advanced and might I remind you _forbidden_ technique the First Hokage invented at the _freaking pinnacle _of his abilities!"

_'I hate this. __Why can't Mom just talk about her problems to me instead of taking it all out on Grandpa__?' _Naruto wondered silently, sinking to the floor as he pulled his arms around his knees. As he tried to push back the sad feelings that threatened to overtake him, he could only sigh and think about a better time when they used to never fight. This was really killing his graduation cheer.

"Kushina, I understand. Believe me, I understand." Jiraiya responded in a voice a little louder than his mother's murmur. "I understood the risks involved with handing that scroll to him but I think this is for the best as it will give him at least a chance to _grow_ as a ninja."

"You don't get it at all, do you Jiraiya?! Let's say he learns some of the techniques in the scroll and the situation becomes too dire. His chakra control can only go so far before he loses himself!"

"That won't happen; Sarutobi and I have both inspected the seal and it won't get broken so easily."

_'What in the hell are they talking about?' _Naruto asked himself, listening a little more intently as he flattened himself silently against the hardwood door. His flickering blue eyes were fixed on the picture of his mother, grandfather and himself that was displayed prominently on the headboard at the head of his bed. Their smiles seemed eerie in the moonlight that was cast into his bedroom; it gave them almost a… menacing feel when he looked upon each face. _'What seal could they mean?'_

"Are you so sure of everything that Sarutobi says that it has you blinded?" His mother asked, her voice almost a desperate pleading now.

"I trust his wisdom, Kushina. He has never steered me _or _this village wrong." Jiraiya was beginning to sound as venomous as his mother had a moment earlier.

"With all due respect to the Lord Hokage, we _both_ know his judgment has been wrong in the past."

"That's uncalled for, Ku."

"Yeah but you need to listen. You have eyes, Jiraiya; so take a look around and see what _can_ happen because of things like this."

"Kushina…

"What if he accesses her chakra?"

"He can't, it's sealed completely."

"But he is her son!" Kushina exclaimed sadly. "No matter what we tell ourselves to the contrary, Naruto is still the child of the Kyuubi no Yoko and no amount of wishing to the otherwise changes that!"

Naruto's eyes were wide as his mouth hung ajar.

"We can't lie to him... or ourselves... forever, Jiraiya.

(I)

He took one last glance back at the room before he leapt from the window and began to tear across the rooftops towards the village gates. If he was nothing more than a demon, then he didn't need to be a burden on them.

* * *

Author's Note: And there's Chapter 2 for you now. Whenever I get a chance to begin working on Chapter 3, I'll be working my best to get it up here. Also, for those of you wondering what some of these jutsu are I've used in the story, I'm including the Japanese to English translation of the jutsus at the bottom of the chapter after this little note.

**Kirigakure no Jutsu**: Hidden Mist Jutsu

**Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu:** Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Jutsu

**Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu**: Water Clone Jutsu

**Haremu no Jutsu: **The Harem Jutsu

**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: **Shadow Clone Jutsu (everyone should already know this one)

Well there you go people. Hope you enjoyed it.


	4. Chapter 3: No Objections

Author's Note: Hey, I'm back with Chapter 3 finally so sorry for the delay. To those of you who read it, thanks; it's good to know someone is . Anyway, to answer some questions about last chapter, firstly: Yes, Iruka's parents are still alive. This is AU and, in this universe, his parents survived the Kyuubi's attack which means that they're free to give Iruka crap about not applying for ANBU. Secondly, the scroll really wasn't stolen this time around. Sarutobi, trusting Jiraiya's wisdom in the matter, freely gave it to him so he could give it to Naruto. Thirdly, the three new genin who were originals were just there for that reason; as of yet I don't have anything planned with them in case you're wondering but that might change by the time I'm done writing this chapter. Well anyways, now that that's done, chapter time. Review honestly.

"I…" indicates speech.

_'I…'_ indicates inner thought.

_**'I…'**_ indicates conversation with Kyuubi.

(I) indicates a timeskip.

* * *

  
Chapter 3: No Objections

* * *

"Naruto, time to get up," Kushina said wearily as she opened the door to her son's darkened room and peered inside to wake him for the day. She was already exhausted from the conversation she had had with Jiraiya until about two in the morning the previous night about his 'gift' to Naruto as it directly pertained to her son's true heritage. They had always planned to tell the boy about what he was by the time he became a genin but now, as that day had come and gone, she was struggling to find the words to speak to him. Jiraiya had forced her hand by giving him the scroll as he was planning on help the boy to grow into what he was born to be. Yet, in the end, she knew Jiraiya was right and that now was the time to tell him, which she was planning to do later this morning. Thus, as it was only about six a.m., it was still dark and gray outside his window but there was no stopping the sun from rising and starting this day she had dreaded.

As she turned her attention to heap lying under the blankets on the bed, something struck her as wrong; Naruto usually woke up by the first time she called as he was eager to start his training for the day. She stepped into his room from the door, noticing immediately that it was immaculately clean, something that was nowhere near the norm for her son. The walls were organized with none of his kunai or shuriken hanging around, there were no spare clothes lying around, and even his dresser was closed with a little note with her name on it folded on top of…

"Oh no…" She whispered, running over to pick up the piece of paper. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped as she poured over her son's words.

_Mom, by the time you read this, I will be already long gone on my way to the Land of Water. I'__m sorry but you and the village__ shouldn't have to bear the burden of a demon like me. __As such, I will not force my life upon you anymore and choose to run away from Konoha for both yours and my sakes. Tell Grandpa I'm sorry I can't let him teach me the jutsu from his scroll. I know he wanted to but I'm taking it with me to remember you both by. __I love you and Grandpa Jiraiya but this is goodbye._

_Sincerely,_

_Naruto, the Kyuubi_

"Naruto!" She screamed, immediately dropping the note as she bolted from his room through the open bedroom door. She had to get Jiraiya, had to get Sarutobi, had to get damn anybody to help her immediately go after her son.

A second later and she was already out of her apartment, the shinobi lifestyle she had given up more than a decade later when Naruto came into her life all coming back in a flash as she leapt from the top of their rooftop apartment and began to tear across the tops of the buildings toward the Hokage Residence. Her chakra was surging through every part of her body, turning her into a speeding bullet that ripped up shreds of brick and concrete behind her with every lightning fast step she took. Tearing up part of the Ichiraku Ramen's roof as she leapt from it, she dove down at the street like a suicidal cliff-diver, pulling up at the last second to land perfectly as she continued toward her destination with an unholy urgency. _'Please Kami… Keep my son safe!" _

One last leap and she cleared the wall that surrounded the Hokage's estate, already beginning to run right up the side of the giant red structure with the simplest of ease. She knew that Jiraiya and Sarutobi would already be talking as they were discussing the Hokage's actions of whether or not he should inform ANBU and the village elders of Naruto's lineage now that the boy was to discover the truth of what he was.

"What the hell?!" Without even caring about the scratches and cuts that covered her, she leapt through the window to the Hokage's office, shocking the Sandaime and his ex-apprentice. Jiraiya and his master immediately leapt to their feet in anticipation of whatever she was there for. "Kushina, what in the hell's name of the Yondaime are you doing here?"

"It's Naruto! He found out the truth and ran away last night!" She screamed, breaking into tears as she sank to the floor. "He left a note saying he's going back to The Land of Mist!"

(I)

"Your mission is simple but the timeframe required of you to complete it in is of the utmost of importance." The Sandaime Hokage spoke to the two tracker and hunter squadrons of the ANBU black ops kneeling before him and staring straight at his wiry old figure from behind their eight separate porcelain masks. His voice was stoic and decisive, indicating the kind of man he was that he could detach himself from the situation and take a step back to analyze everything that was going on to see the route he needed to take without eyes clouded by emotion. Thus, he directed the group of eight shinobi from the courtyard outside of his office without "Between the hours of ten last night and five this morning, Naruto Uzumaki left the village in the direction of the Land of Water, most likely towards Kirigakure no Sato.

"Your orders are to separate and fan out in the general direction of the Kiri and find the boy as soon as you can to prevent someone else possibly finding him. When he is found, restrain him and capture him but _do not_ bring a single bit of harm to him or the punishment for the one who does so will be significant and severe. As soon as you have him in your possession, ignite a single signal bomb in the sky above you and Jiraiya and the Lady Uzumaki will converge on your location to retrieve the target. Are there any questions?"

The air around the eight masked shinobi was deathly silent in an almost eerie sense, as though underneath each mask was the face of a corpse only arisen from the grave to serve this particular purpose. It had always unnerved Kushina exactly how the various organizations like ANBU worked, especially the ones from back in Kiri and the Land of Whirlpools, who were essentially just highly-trained assassination squads populated by each hidden village's most sadistic and psychotic jonin. She had only seen them used to either protect the Hokage when it was necessary for a public function or whenever the village elders or leaders declared that someone had to die. Quite frankly, the fact that the same crazed murderers were the ones searching for her son did nothing to put her mind at ease.

"It should also be noted that Naruto is currently in possession of a scroll that unquestionably needs to be returned with him. The scroll he carries must be brought back at all costs. Now, if there are no questions, Commander Hatake will take over and I bid you all good luck."

Kushina watched as a silver-haired shinobi stepped forward, his words influential and to the point, showing that he had probably been in serious situations like this many times before. Within a second, he came over to where she and Jiraiya were waiting to depart, a small dog at his side wearing a ridiculous blue cape and hood. He was a rather tall and collected man, with a mane of spiky silver hair that shot up from his head like an erupting geyser. All in all, he was laid back and had an air of peace about him as though he were simply enjoying the world around him.

"Do you have anything with the boy's scent on it for my hounds to track?" He asked straightforwardly with a serious gaze from behind his midnight blue mask. Kushina merely nodded and pulled out one of the only shirts Naruto had left in his room from the pack she wore over her shoulders. "This will do perfectly. Follow me."

(I)

_The Valley of the End_

_9:00 a.m._

He still could not believe what he had overheard, what he had heard them utter in the silence of the previous night's moonless darkness. They had called him… called him a…a demon, some kind of monster that brought fear and despair to those who were unlucky to cross its path. More than that even though, his own mother had claimed her as someone else's child; she had said he was the child of the nine-tailed demon fox instead of her own flesh and blood. So he had coped the only way that he knew how to: he ran. Gathering up his collection of scrolls, kunai, shuriken and a few changes of clothing, he had silently tucked them all into his old backpack and slung it over his shoulder with the Shodaime's scroll tied in underneath it. One last look back at his simplistic white-washed walls, in particular the big picture of him and the woman he thought was his mother hanging opposite of the window, and he was gone.

He ran; he ran until the lactic acid began to pour into every inch of his legs, ran until his lungs screamed for air and his heart pounded like a war drum, ran until his brain began to suffocate from the lack of oxygen, ran until he got more and more nauseous with each passing step until he got so sick he had to hurl. And then he ran more.

Instead of heading directly for Kiri, Naruto had broken away from the path when he got past the village gates and headed off into the great forest that surrounded Konohagakure no Sato and got lost into parts beyond his own knowledge. After a good three hours of running, he had ended up on the ledge of a giant valley of a lake fed by a nearby waterfall. On each side of the waterfall's boundaries stood a pair of giant stone monoliths of two men who Naruto took to be former Konoha-nin due to the fact that both of them had the symbol of the Leaf Village engraved into their stone hitai-ate. The valley seemed so surreal, so out of place amidst the vast stretches of the forest which is why he felt he had been led to stop and take a break on the far shore of its banks which is where he had now been for the last hour.

"Let's see, the first technique listed is the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, the shadow clone technique..." He read aloud to himself, his eyes scanning the section of the scroll he had unrolled in front of him. Naruto had decided to begin to study the scroll immediately, wanting to learn anything and everything that might help him along the way to Kirigakure. _'Jiraiya-san said this technique would help me overcome the pitfalls of my water clones.'_

He read over the long lines of writing, almost immediately picking up on every detail that the Shodaime had written regarding the technique, using the sun's light to read. As the sun had already begun to rise a great distance past the edge of the eastern horizon and was now already over the tree-line, he guessed it was somewhere around nine in the morning, more than eight hours since he had actually left. Even though he knew he had not really made it that far away from the village, he was still already exhausted due to the lack of sleep over the last few days in preparation for his graduation exam and now he had spent the better part of the last eight hours running instead of sleeping. As such, the boy's eyes had little bags under them and his black shirt was stained through with sweat even though he had taken the time to tie his orange and black coat around his waist to let the night air cool him. Thus, even though his chakra was still high enough for him to create a good supply of water clones, he was already bushed. So naturally, he was resting his body while his mind began to learn.

_'The handsigns are the same as my usual clone technique but it just requires more chakra but that shouldn't be a problem for me. It never has,' _He thought silently as he leaned back against one of the few trees that lined the river's edge. Immediately Naruto began to go through the motions with his hands, focusing on what he had always viewed as a great wellspring of chakra within him. _'Though, I guess that I myself may not have anything to do with that one if what Mom had said is true…'_

He studied up on the technique for the next thirty minutes before he was ready to try it even once. All the while, his mind raced with thoughts of what it meant for him if he really was nothing more than the accursed offspring of the legendary Kyuubi no Yoko. After all, he had heard the stories, especially the one regarding the Kyuubi's attack against the whole village of Konohagakure no Sato twelve years earlier, though it was defeated by the Yondaime Hokage. He knew what kind of a monster it was because of all the legends and myths about a single swipe of its paws leveling whole mountains. All his life, he had heard about a few of the legendary tailed beasts but never anything about the possibility that the Kyuubi or any of the other demons could have had any sort of progeny, especially a human like himself. And yet, here he stood in a body of inhuman flesh and demon's blood according to what he had heard.

"Okay… Here goes nothing." He said aloud as he climbed to his feet and took a ready stance in preparation for his first shot at the Shodaime's technique. His azure blue eyes were fixated at the scroll, which was currently spread out at his feet so he could keep looking at the information about the jutsu while he tried it. With the utmost dedication he moved his hands through the positions and shouted out the incantation. "Kage Bunshin no–"

"Naruto!" Called out a voice clear as day from the across the edge of the river, coming from a sky-blue headed shinobi who stood at the edge of the forest, partially hidden at the tree-line. "Naruto Uzumaki!"

"M-Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked aloud as he dropped his hands from the sign they were locked in for the jutsu and turned his attention to the Konoha-nin that had called to him. He could just barely make out the chunin's face from the distance they stood at but, as Naruto had never met anyone else who had the same color of hair and always wore a full bandana instead of a headband, he knew it was one of his old instructors from the academy. _'Shit, someone's found me already! I thought I'd have at least another two hours before they'd be able to track me in this direction but I guess Mom had some of the village ninja help her.' _"Is that you?"

The blue-haired chunin rushed across the river's surface, focusing his chakra to run across it like a basic carpet in order to reach his young ex-pupil. Naruto was already freaking out inside that he had been found this far away from the village as he knew he must be close to the edge of the Land of Fire already, which meant he would be considered a missing-nin since he was now a full-fledged shinobi out this far with the intent of running from Konohagakure no Sato. This wasn't good, not by a long shot.

"Naruto, thank Kami I found you. We've been looking for you everywhere!" Mizuki-sensei said as he stopped a few feet away from the blonde genin. Immediately, his shifty eyes fell upon the scroll at Naruto's feet though the boy failed to notice it at all.

"You have?" Naruto asked cautiously, being careful not to try and arouse too much suspicion.

"Yes! The Lord Hokage organized an entire group of chunin and jonin to find you when your mother told him that you ran away last night. We've been trying to find you for the last three hours." The instructor replied, walking over to place his hand on his pupil's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"…No, I'm not. I'm not okay at all." Naruto responded, casting his eyes at his feet as he thought back to the conversation he had overheard less than a half a day earlier. He had always trusted Mizuki and Iruka because, even though he and his class had had a variety of sub-teachers, the two chunin had been their primary instructors for the better part of the last three years through their journey through the Academy. Both of them had always been on the lookout for their students, helping them any way they could because, as Iruka had always said, 'They [the students were now part of their family as future ninja of the Leaf Village.' As such, Naruto felt he could at least tell Mizuki some of his problem, even if he couldn't allow him to take him back to the village. "I heard my Mom and grandpa talking last night after they thought I had gone to bed. She said… that I wasn't really her son and she wasn't really my mom…"

"Are you sure she didn't mean that you don't _act_ like you're related to her… you know, because of the pranks and jokes you and Kiba pull?" Mizuki asked, actually intrigued by what his student was saying.

"No. The way she said it wasn't angry or anything like that; it was just a statement of fact." He replied, tears starting to well up in his eyes.

"Well even if she's not your mother, I'm sure she loves you. After all, I don't think she would get the Sandaime to mobilize both ANBU tracking squads to come and find you if she didn't care about you." Mizuki finished, patting the kid on the head while pretending to smile warmly. Naruto lifted his gaze back up to meet his instructor's as his eyes began to brighten a little and the smile slowly began to fight its way back onto his already rose-blushed cheeks.

"…Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, I didn't even give her any chance to… you know try and explain what she said to me and tell me what she meant by it." Naruto spoke as he started to justify inside himself returning back to the village. What Mizuki had said made sense to him because, if she really didn't care about him in some sense or another, he couldn't honestly see his mom bothering to take the time to have someone like the Hokage himself get the Konoha-nin to come after him. She almost always told him not to bother Sarutobi with unimportant things because he was busy running the village and that meant that he was definitely important to her in some sense or another because she almost always refused to ask Sarutobi for anything. He started to beat himself up for not talking to her and, instead, just running away.

"So you're going to come back to the village?" Mizuki asked expectantly, once again glancing down at the scroll unrolled at the new genin's feet.

"Yeah! I shouldn't have ever left without talking to Mom first, I guess." Naruto answered, bending down to roll back up the weathered and ancient scroll, taking time to handle it with the utmost of care because of exactly how valuable Jiraiya had said it was. Even though he ended up not getting a chance to try out the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, he had studied enough up on it and how to perform it that he felt he could probably pull it off without much effort already. With his body already having rested up again, he felt like he could try it until he perfected it when he got back to the village. So, as he locked back up the scroll to the little makeshift sling he had made at the bottom of his backpack, he stood up with a smile. "Come on Mizuki-sensei. I'm ready to go back."

"Great!" He said, leading the soon-to-be teenager back into the chilly but shallow waters of the river. "Hey Naruto, would you like me to carry your bag for you?"

"No thanks, Mizuki-sensei, I've got it."

"…Are you sure?" The chunin said hesitantly, looking down at the bag and the scroll at the base of it in particular.

"Yeah, it's not like it's that heavy and I can always use a little weight training to help me keep to increasing my speed. I'll carry it." Naruto replied coolly. He knew he had just had a little bit of an emotional breakdown but it wasn't like he couldn't carry his own luggage, both literally and metaphorically, back to the village. He was not too much of a kid to not be able to carry a bag fifty miles on his back.

"Come on; let me carry it for you." Mizuki said a little more forcibly, reaching down to pull it off his back by force if he needed to.

"I said I've got it!" Naruto tore away from his sensei's grip, stepping a few steps back to face the sensei that had since began to look at him with an angry and menacing little grin that was almost entirely focused on the scroll he carried. Beginning to finally pick up on just what was going on, he reached back into the pouch that was tied around his belt and pulled out a single kunai from it, pointing it decidedly at the crazed instructor that was standing in front of him. Mizuki, however, just smiled when he saw the kid's pose, knowing full and well that he could probably overpower such a runt with the simplest of ease.

"Hah, what do you think you're gonna do with that Naruto? You gonna cut me?" Mizuki taunted as he reached around and grabbed a massive shuriken off his back. "Just give me the scroll and you won't get hurt."

"Stay back, psycho!" Naruto shouted, launching the kunai with a flick of his wrist.

The kunai sailed through the air in a straight line, cutting a clear path towards the dead center of the blue-haired shinobi's forehead. Though it was a perfect toss, Mizuki dodged at the last second, bending his head back to allow it to pass over him without a scratch. As it stuck into the tree twenty feet behind him, the chunin just leaned back up to gaze at his ex-pupil with the darkest of intents. Silently, the façade of a smile that had been on his face dropped and gave way to a glare and grimace that could put the greatest of serial killers to shame. He wasn't playing around anymore.

"You shouldn't have done that, kid."

He launched the giant shuriken in his hand, throwing it squarely at Naruto's side.

(I)

Kushina searched the forest ground below her from her perch atop the branches. The ANBU squads, Kakashi and Jiraiya were nearby somewhere, also searching for her son as the ANBU's search dog had narrowed down Naruto's location, which had turned out to be in the opposite direction of Kiri. Now all that was left was to find the young ninja and at least try to tell him the truth of what he was and try to get him to come home with her. She had never told him the truth because she had wanted to spare him from this burden that came with being something truly different but it seemed that fate hated her a little too much to allow such selfishness. Thus, she was going to just have to trust her son's judgment to see her motives and not just the facts of his birth.

"Any sign of him yet?" She asked through the radio as another sudden wave of anxiousness passed over her.

"Negative; Pakkun lost the majority of his scent as it has spread throughout the whole area." Kakashi replied through the radio system. "That means there is a good chance he is somewhere in this area. All teams, continue with fan and search procedures and report any potential sign of the boy."

A scream of sheer agony ripped through the forest.

"KAKASHI!" Kushina shouted into her radio, instantly recognizing the owner of the scream because it was a voice she had heard daily for more than a decade now. Immediately she began to run toward where she heard it come from, a deathly dread gripping her heart in the worst sense of the word as she began to pray to Kami that her son would still be safe when she got there. It was all her fault for not just openly telling him what he was and now she had put his life in the gravest of dangers because he had rejected her. He could be being attacked by some horrifying monster right now and it was all her fault! She had to reach him immediately.

"All units close in on origin of that scream now!" Kakashi ordered as he landed on the branch beside her. In sync, the two of them tore through the tree tops toward the source of the shriek.

(I)

Naruto was breathing heavily, holding his right side with his hand to try and stop the flow of blood that poured freely from the gigantic wound Mizuki-sensei had inflicted. He was in supreme pain right now but he had at least pulled the shuriken from his side and was forcing himself not to cry, though he had screamed when it found its new hiding place near his stomach. From the little bit of medical knowledge that Mizuki and Iruka had taught him and the rest of the class back in the Academy, he was pretty sure he was not in danger of dying from the wound but that didn't mean he wasn't in danger of dying from the insane psychopath standing in front of him.

"Now now, Naruto; if you keep refusing to give me the scroll, I'll just have to aim at a little more dire spot next time and take it from your corpse." Mizuki said, taking a step toward the injured kid. "Now, give me the scroll."

"Go to hell!" Naruto shouted back as he sidestepped so his back was facing the side of the forest that led back to Konoha. In defiance of the blue-headed bastard that had already dug a blade into his side, he threw up both of his hands with a serious smirk plastered on his face as he glared at Mizuki.

"I've told you before, Naruto; the middle finger is not a ninja handsign. It looks like you're not going to make this easy for yourself." Mizuki replied, even further angered by the young boy's impertinence by flashing him two identical birds as he backed away cautiously. He really didn't care if he had to kill the blonde, he actually looked forward to it due to how much Kiba and the kid had made his life one long annoyance after another while he taught at the Academy. It would be rewarding to dig a kunai through his throat, even if he did surrender the scroll.

"I guess it means you fail as an instructor then, Mizuki-shithead!" Naruto spat back.

"I'm gonna kill you and your mother, bastard child!"

He pulled the second giant shuriken from its holster on his back and began to spin it in his left hand, the four separate points and eight blades twirling around and around like a whirlwind of destruction. Naruto knew that he would die here today, saw his own imminent demise rushing towards him with each step that his ex-sensei took through the six-inch deep water. He wanted to break down and cry already, wanted to go find his mom wherever she was and just tell her he was sorry for ever putting her through such misery and heartache but he would never have that chance again. All he could do was just sit back and…

His mind had gone through the motions unconsciously, forming each and every single sign with the utmost of accuracy and precision. Without a word, the side of him that had not seen the light of day in more than twelve years surfaced and took over, wresting the control of his body from him in a desperate attempt at self-preservation. His hands moved and he did not feel it; his lips moved and he did not sense it, his voice spoke and he did not hear it. All he could do was just sit back and… let the demon he was take over.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

The air was heavy with smoke as they all appeared; there were thirteen hundred clones to fill the length of the entire river for a good fifty feet in both directions. In the eyes of each and every one of those thirteen hundred lay an unholy crimson glow, a rose red burn of pure anger and hatred directed at the soon-to-be deceased man standing in front of him. There was no mercy, no forgiveness, no sweet innocence in those eyes as each and every one of the vast army turned their fatal gaze upon the chunin shinobi. In silent sync, thirteen hundred right hands reached into the pouch that each and every one wore upon his belt, drawing forth a kunai knife in each hand. A second later, and each blade was lifted in front of the army, ready to strike down their target. All he wanted to, all each and every single one of them wanted to do, was end Mizuki completely.

"Wha-what did you do?!" Mizuki screamed aloud, dropping to his knees as he tried to fall back from the clones that stood in front of him. "W-What the hell are you?!"

**_"You… will… suffer…"_** They spoke in unison as they each drew one step closer towards their prey. The words, though echoed by a chorus of many voices, were hollow and emotionless like the demon that spoke them. Mizuki could hear the approach of his own demise in the echo left by their words… and it chilled him down to the very core of his bones. **_"You… will… die."_**

The orange sun shimmered and danced as it was reflected back into the open sky by more than a thousand soaring blades as they cut through the air, leaving a thick cloud of acrid white smoke that surrounded Mizuki as they tore through the frontline clones to reach their target. There was no sound except the clanking of metal upon metal and the nearly silent murmur of the river beneath their feet. The smoke pushed back and expanded as the cloud began to dissipate but there was no need for any of them to see the victim; they knew he was dead by the lack of any sounds like labored breathing as well as the slowly reddening water that flowed away from his cloud to the falls. It was an almost… rewarding sight to the demon within him.

The clones disappeared all at once as the smoke continued to clear, leaving behind just one of their vast number standing alone in the bloody water.

(I)

Jiraiya was silently horrified by the sight that he had just bore witness to; something about the sheer power and mercilessness conveyed by such a young boy shook even the sannin down to his very core. He had arrived just a minute earlier as Naruto had performed the shadow clone technique so incredibly flawlessly and now found that he was unable to move from his perch on a tree at the river's edge. He had always known that Naruto would be different, that even with Minato's curse upon him he would be far superior to anything that even Jiraiya could expect. But even so, this was different. He had not thought he would get to a point like this before he was already as old as the Yondaime was when he died. The boy truly was _her _son.

Kushina and Kakashi landed on the branch beside him noiselessly, each of them immediately locking their individual gazes down to the spot where the boy now stood. Kakashi was wordless; it was quite a sight to see a full-grown shinobi with more than eight hundred shuriken planted into his body with another four hundred scattered about around him. Kushina, however, only stood still for a second as her lips quietly mouthed a prayer before dropping to the ground.

Her son turned to face her immediately, hearing her feet hit the water with the simplest of ease. One of his eyes was still glowing with the same horrible rose red but the other had faded back to its original hue while down either side of his face rolled a steady stream of stinging saltwater; it was his way of saying he was sorry.

Without a word he ran to her and buried his face in her stomach, weeping sadly as the water under his feet continued to flow red. He didn't know what to say; he didn't know what to do except stand there and cry upon the stomach of the only person in the world at that moment he was one hundred percent sure that loved him. Naruto had watched without a word of opposition inside his own mind as he gave into a side of him he never knew he had and let loose the hounds of hell upon someone as ignorant as he was. He knew why his mother had called him a demon the night before when she spoke with Jiraiya; it wasn't because of his birth or lineage at all, it was because he really was one.

At that moment though, even with all that had happened, she didn't see it that way.

"Come on, Naruto; let's go home." She said at a barely audible whisper to her son, smiling sweetly as she knelt down to cup his face in her hands.

(I)

_Hokage Residence_

_Later that day._

"So what I have told you is clear to you?" The Sandaime asked, leaning back in his chair while taking in a deep puff of smoke from his favorite old pipe. Though the old man had been worried by the events that had taken place under his watch over the last twelve hours, he was breathing easily since it had been resolved finally. Though it pained him to have to bury a ninja from Konohagakure, he was the first to admit that Mizuki's actions were traitorous and treacherous to the village that had raised him and thus, he had had to be dealt with. He had stuck with Kakashi's official (though completely fabricated) report that Mizuki tried to attack Naruto because he wouldn't join him in defecting to another village. In the end, it was better to keep the council in the dark regarding this incident.

"One hundred percent, Lord Hokage," The kunoichi in front of him replied as sternly as she could, a dire and serious look taken upon her face. From underneath her beige coat, her skin was turning pale at the thought of what he had just told her. "But... are you sure that I am right for this task?"

"As sure as I was the day I took you back into the village." He nodded with a smile from behind a pair of vague eyes. She never had been able to tell what exactly was going through the Sandaime's mind whenever he made a decision regarding the village but it came with the title of Hokage, she guessed. Even so, he was right, he had accepted her back into the fold of the family of Konohagakure no Sato without ever persecuting her for all that happened back in the Land of Tea. And she would never forget that. "So then, there are no objections?"

"None at all, Lord Hokage." She answered, straightening up into proper posture to salute him respectfully.

"Then, Anko Mitarashi, from this moment on you are a jonin of Konohagakure no Sato; and your first mission is to be the group leader for Hinata Hyuga, Kaname Zaraki, and Naruto Uzumaki, the newly formed Konoha Squadron Number Nine. You are dismissed."

* * *

Author's Notes: And finally done after what has been one of the longest and most mentally exhausting weeks I've had in a long time. Sorry it took so long to update; I've been in the middle of crap storm of epic proportions. Before I go, good guess on the scroll's involvement Anime-Luver. Anyways, starting next chapter this story really begins so I'll try to have it up as soon as possible. Review honestly and I'll see ya next time. Peace. 


	5. Chapter 4: Team Nine

Author's Note: Well I'm back again for chapter four and the real plot is finally going to begin in the story. To those of you who read the last chapter, thanks and I hope you liked it . Anyways, it's now on to story time.

"I…" indicates speech.

_"I…" _indicates inner thought.

_**"I…" **_indicates conversation with Kyuubi.

(I) indicates a timeskip.

* * *

Chapter 4: Team Nine

* * *

He sat wordlessly as he rested his chin upon the two inwardly bloodstained hands on the desk in front of him. Kiba was prying at him for any detail as to why he had been gone all the previous day but, despite how much Naruto trusted his best friend, there were some secrets better left that way. So all he could do was just make up an excuse about Jiraiya taking him for training and then say he was bored while he laid his head down on his hands. After all, even if he just wanted a little alone time right now, he still had to wait for them to announce the new genin teams.

In the last twenty four hours he had done more to truly make himself feel like crap than he had done in a good three years living within the walls of Konohagakure no Sato. Starting off, he had run away from his home after accidentally hearing the beginning of the truth of his birth. Secondly, he had learned a new technique that had helped him kill a full-grown man who he had thought was a friend but turned out to be nothing more than a bastard. On third there was the issue that he had accidentally done what his mom and grandpa had tried not to do for the better part of twelve years and that was reveal what he was to someone else, an agent of ANBU named Kakashi Hatake. And if all that crap wasn't enough to royally mess him over for the better part of the next century, he had had the fantastic experience of hearing from his mother that the Yondaime Hokage, her ex-fiancé, had sealed up his birth mother's chakra within his body in the form of the tattooed seal that was on his chest.

Though Naruto understood why he had done it, part of him couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if he had truly been the Kyuubi's child. And because of that, he couldn't help but hate the Yondaime… even if it was only a little.

He honestly didn't know what to say at all today; he was still processing the truth that his mother and Jiraiya had force-fed him over the last half-day and trying to separate it from the twelve years of lies he had always been told. From what his mom had told him, until yesterday only Jiraiya, Sarutobi and herself had known and that she had tried to spare him from the truth himself. Though of course forgave her for lying to him, it made him begin to wonder if his entire life wasn't just one big fabrication to keep him from what he was. It made him wonder not just what but _who_ the Kyuubi was.

Quite frankly, even just trying to wrap his brain around that unknown fact only served to bring up questions about himself.

What was he really? He didn't have any tail to speak of like the Kyuubi but that could just be because he was part-human… or maybe he wasn't part-human and maybe he just hadn't manifested his true Kyuubi form yet… or any number of other explanations that did nothing but make him question his own existence even further.

"Naruto? Man, are you even listening to me?" Kiba's insistent questions as he poked the blonde's shoulder repeatedly served as a wake-up alarm to bring the wondering shinobi back from the scary places in his mind. Naruto finally looked over only to see Kiba sitting there with a worried look on his face as he watched his unusually quiet best friend. Akamaru was watching Naruto carefully and cautiously from his perch atop the Inuzuka boy's head but seemed to be almost afraid of Naruto today for some reason. This only led him to suspect that the pup might be able to pick up on what exactly had gone on yesterday by the scent of Mizuki's blood that still barely remained on his hands though he had washed them.

"Yeah, sorry; I guess I'm just really wiped from my training yesterday." Naruto replied, leaning back in his chair and stretching his hands over the back of his head.

"Well it should be worth it then, bud. I mean, your granddad is one of the three legendary sannin after all." Kiba nodded in agreement. It had always fascinated Kiba when he found out that Naruto was 'related' to one of the three greatest shinobi that had ever come from the Leaf Village but the fox didn't really see any big deal to the matter, especially now considering he wasn't really related to him. "So anyways, are you excited about the teams? I mean, I hope we get put together but who knows what's gonna happen, right?"

"I'm not really that worried about it; we'll be fine…" Naruto said half-heartedly. He almost didn't want to find out his team today because that meant he would have to see Iruka-sensei again and, even though Sarutobi had told the village that ANBU had killed Mizuki, the blonde feared having to look into his eyes and just lie about his involvement in the matter. Most of the ANBU families, including Iruka's, knew that Naruto had run away yesterday and that Mizuki was now dead but no one else in the village was any the wiser save hearing news of the sensei's departing.

"Well it looks like we'll find out now because he's finally here!" Kiba nearly shouted, growing more excited and unruly in his chair as the twenty-four-year-old chunin instructor walked in. Naruto truly wanted to kill himself at that moment for what he had done to Mizuki; Iruka's face was pale and sunken as though he hadn't slept in a good week and his chin, which was usually clean shaven before each and every day, was now covered in a drunken man's five hour shadow. Even the cut that ran the length of Iruka's face across the bridge of his nose seemed to be taking a hit from Mizuki's death as it now seemed to be almost bloody and infected in contrast to the pale skin around it. All in all, Iruka was a horrible sight today. And that just made the boy want to run up and plant his face at Iruka's feet and beg for some measure of forgiveness for taking away such a good friend even more, but he knew he couldn't; it wouldn't change what he had done at all.

"Good morning, students. I trust you have had a peaceful day off?" Even though he was looking around the room at the twelve new genin, to Naruto it felt as though his eyes were deadlocked upon the orange-clad ninja sitting at the back of the class. That question was directed at him.

There were a few murmurs of yes but everyone else just seemed more interested in their team arrangements.

"Good, then I guess I'll go ahead and just announce the teams instead of making you wait." Iruka finished with a real cold yet laid-back tone, turning his attention to the small scroll he was currently unrolling in his hand. Even though he wasn't even looking at Naruto, the boy still just wanted to crawl under his desk and hide his face until the next graduation six months from now. "Each squadron will be composed of three genin and one jonin instructor. The four squadrons being filled this time around are Squads seven, eight, nine and ten so all twelve of you will be assigned to one of the four. To all of you, please take time to remember that I didn't assign you to these squads nor do I give a crap if you have a problem with who you're assigned with.

"First, Squad Seven. Squad Seven will consist of Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka, and Sasuke Uchiha."

Naruto turned to look at his best friend when he heard who his teammates would be. Even with the blonde being in a major funk regarding all that had happened in the last day, he still didn't envy Kiba – whose face had already proceeded to pale down to a bleached white – having to be stuck with Sasuke for good now. However, he was disappointed he wasn't on the same team as Sakura because he had figured it would have given him a great chance to tell her how he felt if he was. Kiba, meanwhile, was just bug-eyed and ghost-faced as he tried not staring over in Sasuke's direction, his clawed fingernails digging into the wooden desks as he fought the urge.

"Sorry man…" Naruto whispered, patting him on the shoulder.

"Squad Eight now will be comprised of Shino Aburame, Minoa Matsuda, and Shinobu Sagara." Naruto didn't really know Shino, Minoa or Shinobu as all three of them were pretty reclusive individuals back in the Academy which only made him perk up a very little bit inside. After all, if none of them talked at all, something made him think that their sensei would be a little less troubled than whoever got the hornet's nest of Kiba and Sasuke.

"Squad Nine's members are Hinata Hyuga, Naruto Uzumaki, and Kaname Zaraki."

Naruto's attention moved through the room as he took a good look at his two new teammates, his eyes finally being drawn away from Iruka-sensei's line of sight. He knew Hinata well enough even though she always seemed to quiet herself whenever he was around but the Zaraki kid was all but unknown to him as he hadn't really paid much attention to him back in the Academy. Hinata was a pretty decent kunoichi and had always seemed to know how to handle herself during the Academy's training time. Zaraki, however, had only transferred in from some other village earlier in the year, Naruto remembered. It would definitely be interesting to find out what kind of a shinobi his new teammate would be. Of course though, that only made him more interested in his two new partners and their jonin.

"Finally, Squad Ten will be made up of Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka."

Naruto smirked as he watched the final three members' reactions to their appointments. Choji, as normal, was chomping down on his second bag of chips for the morning while Shikamaru slept with his head on his desk. Ino, meanwhile, was just glaring and randomly swearing at Sakura from across the back of the room for not being assigned to the same squad as 'Sasuke-kun'. God if there was ever a reason to want to just haul off and tell her to shut up for once, it would be because of how much she and Sakura went on and on and on about how cool the ebon-headed punk was and how he needed to make them his girlfriend. Quite frankly, it almost made him angry to have to listen to them day in and day out about Sasuke.

"Now, your individual jonin squad leaders have left requests regarding where they would like you to meet them this afternoon," Iruka finished, leaning back against the teacher's desk as he folded his arms over his chest. "Squad Seven, your instructor asked that you wait here until he arrives. Eight, your instructor will meet the three of you at the shrine on the western edge of the pond inside town.

"Nine, report to the training ground on the outskirts of the village; and Squad Ten, your instructor would like you to meet him near the central gate of the village." Iruka looked across the room at each and every one of the twelve faces that were about to leave his charge for the last time. Though he was undoubtedly still focused on what had happened a day earlier to his best friend, Iruka still seemed to be proud as he looked over the twelve genin. Even set within his currently ghastly pale face, his eyes still seemed to beam at all of them. "… Enjoy your new squadrons, genin. You are dismissed."

(I)

_Konoha Training Ground_

_An hour and a half__ later_

"So what's your story, Kaname?" Naruto asked as he and his two new partners, Hinata and Kaname, waited for their new instructor jonin while resting underneath the leafy branches of a giant oak next to the river that lined their training ground. It was such a peaceful day today; the sun was shining brightly from its grand throne amidst a completely cloudless and clear blue sky. The water of the river next to them was placid and flowing with a light and peaceful rumble and bumble and even the insects of the forest seemed to be leaving the trio alone. "Where are you from?"

The other male on the team had darker skin like some of the people from the further southern islands back in the Land of Water, the kind of naturally dark tan that came with a life out in the sun like on a tropical island or in the desert. The tone was a shade of soft brown, much like sand. His hair, meanwhile, was an interesting shade of silvery white that seemed almost out of place with his darker complexion and his eyes were a bright blue much like Naruto's. Though he wore the same hitai-ate as his other two teammates, the rest of his clothing stood out as it reflected his foreign descent. Kaname's pants were a pair of baggy white cargos and seemed to be designed to flow and breathe while he wore a sleeveless blue shirt lined with black along the shoulders, neck, and down his sides. On his back, meanwhile, stood a boldly printed symbol in white that belonged to one of the other hidden villages.

"From the Land of Wind; I was born and raised in Sunagakure no Sato, comrade." He replied with a warm smile as he turned to show them the symbol on his back. His voice was so… so deep and proper, so accented and almost melodic compared to most of the other preteens that Naruto had known back in the Academy. "I decided I wished to finish my genin training in this village and my father agreed with the idea, so I have been here since early last fall."

"Your dad was really cool with just up and moving like that?" Naruto asked as he twirled about a shuriken with his index finger. He was royally bored right now with having to wait to meet this new instructor but it was something that couldn't really be helped. However, he still wished that the jonin would just hurry up and get his or her slow butt here.

"Well… not at first," Kaname replied, stretching out further under the tree. "But, I can be persuasive if and when I need to be so he eventually gave in, my friend."

"So do you know any special jutsu or anything that's different than the stuff they taught back at the Academy?"

"The Zaraki clan has always been honored in Sunagakure because of our intricate knowledge of the art of advanced genjutsu, particularly in the area of sensory manipulation. As such, I am very skilled in the use of genjutsu." Kaname replied with the slightest hint of an air of superiority, obviously proud of his clan.

"Well then, a belated welcome to the _legendary_ Konoha village then." Naruto responded overly sarcastically, turning his one open eye's attention from Kaname to Hinata, who was standing against the side of the tree whereas he and Kaname were already plopped on the grass. She had hardly said more than five words since they had first left the classroom, only replying whenever a question had been directed to her personally and she always seemed to turn red whenever Naruto would look over to her but, for some reason he had not yet figured out, she had been that way since he had first met her three years earlier. "Well, you're from Suna and I'm from Kiri so that means we've got at least two partially foreign ninja on our team. What about you, Hinata; any heritage from the other countries?"

"…Me? Well… I, um…" She stammered, again turning red as she cautiously looked down at the two pre-adolescent boys sitting beside her. "The Hyuga clan… has always been p-part of Konoha."

"Yes, I heard your clan is one of the better respected clans out of the whole village," Kaname remarked, also turning his attention to the blushing gray-eyed kunoichi. "From what I have heard through the Academy and the village, your clan and its council members are very highly respected due to your bloodline's kekkai genkai."

"Y-yes… The Byakugan… It-it allows us to see any person's… flow of chakra through their body."

"That's pretty cool, Hinata; it seems like it'd be a pretty useful talent to have in a battle." Naruto said, taking a good long look at the placid yet utterly dull area around the three of them. Although it was nice to be able to sit here and get to know the two of them and relax after yesterday's complications, he was still annoyed by the fact that their new sensei had yet to arrive. He couldn't help but wonder just what kind of person the jonin would be, especially because according the meet time that Iruka had told them, the jonin was more than an hour late. The genin could only hope that the sensei at least had a decent reason for ditching them like this. "Hey Hinata; why are you standing up, anyways? Why don't you just sit down on the grass with Kaname and me?"

"O-okay…" The dark-haired girl stuttered as she sank down to the grass. Though he had partially suggested she sit just because he was being nice, he had also wanted to see exactly how she would react to doing so. And, as Naruto had expected, she turned even redder as she sat down almost exactly shoulder to shoulder with him. He couldn't help but grin a little as he watched her reactions as he stretched out to lay back a little further against the tree trunk, pulling his arms behind his head. "S-so who do you think… who do you think our sensei will be?"

There was a distinct whistle in the air as she murmured those eight words.

Naruto gulped noticeably as a single shuriken dug into the tree trunk only a hair of a millimeter above the end of his hair, shooting a good inch and a half all the way into the ancient wood. Almost simultaneously three others shot out of the same group of bushes that the original knife had come from, each of them sailing through the open air towards its own designated member of Team Nine. The three ninja had no more than a second to dodge out of the way as the shuriken followed suit with the first one and planted themselves in the tree trunk where they had each been sitting a split second earlier. Though Naruto couldn't see the knives' owner, he had already at least partially pinpointed their location based on where the shuriken had come from. So, immediately he shot a kunai right back into the same set of bushes.

"Well, well, well… It looks like I might just not have the three most useless maggots from the Academy." A figure shot out of the bushes a mere second before his kunai soared into them, landing almost instantly upon a branch of the tree they had all been setting under a moment later. "I guess Iruka really doesn't hate me, after all."

Naruto, Hinata, and Kaname all turned their gazes up to the branch in shock. Standing on a leafy branch half way up the thick trunk of the tree was a young woman of maybe twenty or so with a head of crazy black hair that was as spiked as Naruto's own. She was wearing a light beige jacket that fell to her feet over a pair of skin-tight dark orange shorts and a somewhat thick fish-net shirt that just barely obscured her black bra from view. Her eyes were a faded shade of brown, the same color hazel as a cup of black coffee that someone had poured cream into. Though she wore the Konoha She was smiling impishly and mischievously down at the three of them, brandishing a kunai in her hands.

"Who the hell are you?!" Naruto spat out at the psycho on the tree branch. "And why the hell did you just try to kill us?!"

"Well well, you must be Naruto Uzumaki," She replied with a scintillating little bit of madness in her voice as she leaned forward on the branch to get a better look at the three stunned shinobi that stood at her feet. Kaname had already drawn a kunai and was holding it threateningly while Naruto just looked dumbfounded she knew his name. Hinata meanwhile had taken cover behind the blonde-haired kid who she secretly loved in case the woman turned out to be even more murderous. "And that makes the one with the suntan Kaname Zaraki and the ghostly-looking girl behind you Hinata Hyuga."

"Who are you?" Kaname asked, also surprised to hear his own name spoken by the psychotic stranger.

"My name is Anko Mitarashi, jonin of ninja village Hidden in the Leaves; and you three weak little maggots can call me your trainer, master, sensei and god from here on out!" She spat spiritedly, leaping to the ground to land directly in front of Naruto.

(I)

_Konoha Training Ground_

_Three Hours Later._

Naruto panted heavily as he shakily climbed back to his feet, his lungs aching and burning with each gasp of fresh air tore into his lungs.

A little more than three hours ago, the sadistic psychopathic jonin standing in front of him had appeared after trying to kill him and his new squad mates as a test to see if they were even ready to be genin. After she gave a quick introduction as to just who in the blue hell she was and commanded each and every one of them to introduce themselves, she had begun something she called 'training'. Naruto didn't really think that this was an appropriate title for something so utterly… utterly violent. She had basically spent the last three hours taking on the three of them to test their fighting potential, which left Kaname and Hinata unconscious and bloody on the ground behind him. He was the only one left standing still and their crazed instructor had only broken a sweat so far as none of them had managed to scratch her yet. No, training was not the right word for this; torture seemed far more appropriate.

"Come on you worthless little punk; that the best you got?" She shouted as he forced himself to stand up again. So far, he had stuck with his usual water clones, refusing to the shadow clone technique out of fear that what had happened to Mizuki might happen again. "I've met handicapped old hags with more bite than you!"

"Well… you would know… wouldn't you Anko-sensei?" Naruto ground out between gasps. "After all… you are… a handicapped… old hag!"

"Why you little brat!"

He didn't even see her move before he felt her fist smash into the back of his head, sending him sailing for the river for the fourth time since she had begun to kick the crap out of him and his teammates. It was quite a weird sensation to feel his teeth shake as the inside of his skull reverberated from the vicious blow, sending shockwaves of exquisite pain down each and every nerve ending in his body. Not surprisingly, he could taste the sick rusty savor of his own blood in his mouth as he crashed into the ice cold water.

_'Damnit, she's too fast for me to even hit now and it feels like my body's already at its limits!' _From beneath the water's surface he swore his own bad luck for being paired with such an insanely unstable instructor. Quite frankly, Naruto would have even traded places with Kiba and been on Sasuke's team at that moment if it meant he was free of this sadist. _'Gotta think of some way to beat her... If Kaname were conscious I could try to use him to trap her in a genjutsu or something but he's taken too much of a beating to stand back up any time soon. Damn this all!"_

"Get out of the water, kid." He could barely hear and understand her taunting words from his temporary spot a few feet below the water's surface. Due to all the training he had done to perfect his water clone technique, he could hold his breath much longer than most people as he had spent months training to do it underwater so he could ready himself for more complicated water jutsu. Thus, for at least a moment he had a temporary reprieve from the vicious beating he was taking on dry land. "You really don't want to make me come in after you."

_'This is r__idiculous; she already beat the wet __crap out of every water clone I tried to throw at her and she acts like this entire thing is child's play. If only I were even a little bit stronger!'_

"That's it, I warned you!" Her shout came through the water clear as day as she stepped out over the water's surface, kept atop it by pushing her chakra through the soles of her feet. Anko stood directly above him looking down, three feet separating her from the currently freaking genin who had as of yet refused to surface. Unknown to Naruto, this entire training session, the brutalizing of all three of her new charges and the continuous assault she had pounded him with, was nothing more than an attempt to create such a desperate situation that he would have to call upon his other side. As the Sandaime Hokage had told her, he would never learn to control it if he never learned to call upon it. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"

Naruto's eyes went wide as she yelled out the name of the fireball technique he had seen Sasuke use numerous times in the Academy's exams, especially because she aimed directly down at him. He barely had time to curl his body up and cover his face with his arms before the flames began to spew from her mouth.

The first bit of flames cut the water that he hid beneath to steam, clearing a path for the rest of the fireball to slam directly into him and send him deeper into the water. It was a relatively small ball of fire compared to what she usually could perform, but the kids had succeeded in making her use most of her chakra to systematically decimate them. Coupled with the fact she was intentionally holding back as to not injure Naruto any more than was absolutely necessary and she had only made one about four or five feet in diameter. It was still enough to do the job though.

Naruto screamed silently, the little bit of air left in his lungs torn away into the open water as the fireball slowly dissipated into steam as it burned through the water around him. His body ached horribly as he fought to pull himself back up toward the top of the river so he could recover his breath.

"Gotcha!" Anko exclaimed as Naruto just barely surfaced, giving her enough time to reach down and throw him from the waters and into the dirt back on dry land.

"What… what the hell… your p-problem?" Naruto asked wearily as he tried to stand up.

"You; you're still holding back, Naruto," Anko replied, taking a few steps toward him as he shakily stood again. Behind him, Kaname was still out cold but Hinata was starting to stir, the blue-brown hair that covered her head messily clumped around her face. Anko had really wanted to coax out his demon side without the other two team members awake to see it but there were some things beyond her control. "You and I both know you're stronger than this. So stop pretending and fight me, kid!"

She rushed at him again.

_'__CRAP! I can't take another beating from her but if I give in and use the Kage Bunshin, then it could kill her but I have no other choice!'_

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto's hands shot through the four handsigns like lightning, reaching deep within his body to draw out every ounce of chakra he could feel. Somewhere within him, he could almost see the side of him that had taken control only a day earlier, the demon part of his heritage that desperately wanted him to give up any measure of control to it. It felt like that side was more than willing to submit to his will to give him the chakra he so anxiously called upon, like it had been waiting for just the moment that he gave in.

Anko couldn't help but be impressed as she stood back and watched. Instead of one beat up little preteen, there was now a legion of nearly two hundred orange-clad shinobi, each and every one of them ready to fight to the last. The kid had what it took to become a great ninja already, of that she had no doubt because of the fact he still fought on. Quite frankly, she was surprised he hadn't given in sooner and tapped in to the chakra that now manifested itself in the form of his clones. However, given what the Sandaime Hokage told her the previous day about his little escape into the forest and how it all ended, she guessed he was afraid of becoming like that again. It was an admirable little bit of fear.

"So you've finally decided to stop wasting my time, huh." Anko said with a smirk as she looked at the small army. "About damn time."

Each and every one of the shadow clones were already breathing heavily as they had all appeared in the same ragged and beat-up shape that the original was in. She knew that she could have probably beaten each and every one of them with minimal effort even despite their large number if she just kept focused. However, she had already decided she would have to stop beating the snot out of her new charges sooner or later so she was planning on just letting him put one in the win column. And thanks to the fact that she knew Hinata was going to be able to stand again soon, she had all the more reason to let it be a team victory.

"I don't really like to use this jutsu." They said in unison, the entire ring of clones drawing in one foot closer to her. "Water clones are a little less… dangerous."

"Dangerous? Hah! You and your little teammates haven't even laid a hand on me yet, kid," Anko taunted back as she began to step slowly in a tight circle. Outside the ring of the two hundred clones, she could barely see Hinata slowly pushing herself up off the ground as her knees shook and threatened to give way. It was almost perfect timing for the sensei; she could really help to foster some teamwork by having forged a common hatred of herself among the three kids. "And speaking of teammates, it looks like the Hyuga girl can hardly stand!"

That got his attention.

One of the many orange-clad genin near the back turned around only to see Hinata struggling to stand up fully. Quite frankly, she looked like crap as there was a little bit of dried and caked on blood from a trail that started at the corner of her mouth. Her usually immaculately kempt hair was now all disheveled and messed up with dirt clinging to strands all throughout. One of her eyes was closed while the other was only just barely open yet Anko could tell she was still forcing the two into their Byakugan state as the veins on either side of her eyes were bulging from the extra chakra and blood flow. However, she seemed to gain her second wind immediately as the Naruto who had turned ran up to her and helped her stand fully, pulling her arm over his shoulder.

"Hinata, are you alright?" Naruto asked. His clones were still surrounding Anko-sensei so he had at least a brief second to check on the female member of Squad Nine.

"I'll be fine… Naruto," She breathed out heavily, still panting though she had lit up like a light bulb that had been turned on in a pitch black room. Anko couldn't help but smirk inwardly as she watched the dark blue-headed girl. "Are you okay; you look…"

"Not a problem; I'm still standing aren't I?" The twelve-year-old replied, flashing a broad smile as he turned his attention back to the sadist of a sensei that had spent the last three hours wailing on them. He was happy that Hinata had not been hurt as bad as he was because even though he had always healed remarkably fast – something he figured he could probably attribute to the little secret of his birth now that he thought about it – she did not share the same good fortune. Though he was currently nursing what felt like a few bruised ribs and his body was cut up and burned all over, he'd be fine by tomorrow morning.

"Naruto, how did you create… all these clones?" Hinata asked incredulously, finally taking notice at the fact that there current stood two hundred ninja clad in orange and black, all of which were identical to the boy who was currently acting as her crutch.

"Uh, I guess you could say I've been practicing. It still hasn't been enough to beat _her_ yet though."

"I-I might be able to put her down if you can stop her from moving for a few seconds." Hinata replied weakly. "I've got enough chakra left to hit her… where it hurts but I need to get close."

"Let me handle that, then." He responded, turning to flash her another broad smile that only made her light up all over again. Though Naruto wasn't exactly the sharpest kunai in the proverbial pouch, he had picked up on Hinata's little mood changes whenever he came around as they had been happening for more than two years now since Kiba had become friends with her back in the Academy. It made him smile inside to see someone besides his mother or Kiba that was actually truly happy to see him every day; it was very… reassuring. "All of you, it's time to finish this! Hold her down for me and Hinata!"

Each and every one of the clones lunged at the newly-appointed jonin, some of them using the clone in front of them as a springboard to launch into the air and attack from above. Anko couldn't help but break into a grin as a wave of black and orange began to pour down all around her, a sea of bodies crashing down upon her still body. He may have been a little too overt in announcing how he was going to finish the fight but he had the tenacity and stubbornness to get it done. All things considered, she had a feeling that it would be fun teaching him and the other two.

From behind the wall of orange, Hinata forced herself to walk forward, relying heavily upon Naruto to stand up straight as the clones slowly spread away to leave Anko's front unblocked. The eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan drew up all of the strength in her body to fully open both of her eyes as the world around her went gray.

One more step and she suddenly saw the flow of each and every ounce of azure blue chakra through their sensei's body as well as everyone else all around her.

Since she had begun to utilize the Byakugan, she had not seen a single person with chakra that was any other color than a varying shade of blue. It was the normality, the common factor that each human shared with one another even if they were the weakest or the strongest ever born. Yet, instead of being like the rest of the human race that was all one big mass of blue before her eyes, the two hundred different clones and even the true Naruto at her side all glowed with an intense crimson inside. The chakra she saw was almost overwhelming in its flow through his body, something so… so unnatural and yet so completely natural for him. It swelled throughout his entire being, the little rivers of chakra she usually saw when peering at a target appearing more like one big ocean of pure energy that poured through him. She wanted to say something to him about it, to try and ask… but they both had a more important matter to attend to at that moment.

So, instead, she simply focused all of her chakra into her hands.

"Eight trigrams, sixty four palms!" She shouted, forcing her hands to move.

(I)

_The Hokage Residence_

_8:45 p.m._

"So was your little test successful?" The Sandaime asked calmly as he stared ahead at her. Beside him, Jiraiya sat restlessly as his eyes continuously moved from her feet to her head and then back down her body. Though the sannin would have loved to 'research' this woman, there were some people he was smart enough to leave alone. And considering the fact she was involved with a person from his past he hated as well as now being his grandson's sensei, it just wasn't worth all the trouble that came with it. "Do you think that Naruto can be taught to fully control the demon, Anko?"

"Without a doubt, Lord Hokage," She replied as she stood stock still. "Based on his performance today, I would venture to say that, when he takes control of his other half, he could become naturally stronger than any ninja I've ever seen."

"That's a bold claim to make, Anko." Jiraiya spoke up, leaning forward to stare directly into her eyes. His usual light-hearted, sake-induced smile was gone from his face, leaving behind a serious yet placid stare that sent a cold shiver down the young instructor's spine.

"It is not one I make without merit, sir." She replied sternly despite the feelings within herself. Jiraiya didn't seem to fully take the statement but reclined again in his chair anyways and she turned her attention once again back to the aging Hokage that had first ordered her on to this unique assignment. "With your permission, Lord Hokage, I wish to take them into the field immediately. Aside from Naruto's personal growth as a shinobi, it is also apparent to me that Ms. Hyuga may have further talent than the Academy's testing suggests. I think that, given the proper peril and a little real-life training, both of them have the potential to become easily stronger than most genin their age."

"And what is your assessment of your final student, Kaname Zaraki?" Sarutobi asked, adjusting his pipe slightly.

"His main specialty is genjutsu but he lacks the combat expertise to be on par with the other two. I think, however, that I can properly train him in the use of weaponry to make up for this deficit." Anko responded calmly.

"Very well then. Anko Mitarashi, you are cleared for your first mission." Sarutobi finished with a sly smile. "And thanks to a client from the Land of Waves, I believe I have one that should provide some measure of difficulty for your genin."

* * *

Author's Note: Well it's officially 2 a.m., three days before my birthday and I'm finally done with Chapter 4. Just as a little bit of information, if you want to get a good picture of what Kaname looks like, search a picture of chaos from Xenosaga episode III while Naruto's clothing style is much like his outfit post timeskip. Well now that that's out of the way, coming up expect Tazuna to show his face. Anyways, it's sleep time so good night everybody and I'll be back soon. 

Tell me what you think and review honestly. Peace.


	6. Chapter 5: The Builder and the Brothers

Author's Note: Thanks to those of you who read the last chapter. Just to point something out that I think needs to be clarified (despite Jiraiya's original belief that it was the mother Kyuubi's) it is actually Naruto's own demon chakra that was sealed inside of him. As such, any time he taps into that power, it's his own personal chakra he's calling upon. Finally, this story's going to be slowly becoming darker and may eventually get its rating changed to M if need be. Well anyways, now that that's out of the way, on to the chapter.

"I…" indicates speech.

_"I…" _indicates inner thought.

_**"I..."**_ indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

* * *

Chapter 5: The Builder and the Brothers

* * *

_"What is the current progress of the mission, commander?" He asked stoically, peering out over the moonlit village to watch the wind swirl and twist about across the vast space of dead land at the village edge. There was an eeriness upon that wind tonight, something that seemed so commonplace to him but completely unfamiliar to anyone else. All across the ancient stones that made up the village there was a palpable feeling of supreme fear, a dread that grasped at the throats of the villagers and choked them to death slowly. It was a good feeling for them to have; it made them far more manageable, for more able to be manipulated to his purpose._

_"Both **his** and our scout has successfully infiltrated their ranks and has begun gathering intelligence regarding the specifications we gave him. He is awaiting further instructions regarding this matter, milord." The middle-aged jonin replied, kneeling to his lord even though the man had his back turned. "Everything is progressing exactly as you have planned."_

_The restrained manic couldn't help but grin a deeply mortifying and devilish smile as his faithful commander spoke those words. This plot had been in the making for more than five years now so even the slightest little hiccup of an error in planning would be disastrous for him… and his associates. Yet he refused to be alarmed as he had full confidence in the scout; he had picked the village's scout out specifically for this most important mission. Now all that was left to do was just sit back and wait. Soon, very soon, they would finally be ready to enact the endgame to their scenario and, with one fell swoop, set the leaves of the great tree ablaze._

_"Keep me informed commander Baki… and begin your preparations as well."_

_Deep within the walls of the city, an unholy wailing rose up to fuel the city's dread. The boy had already chosen tonight's victim and his fun was just beginning._

(I)

Naruto stayed silent as he walked in the direction of the Hokage Residence. It was a little after six in the morning and he was headed to the meeting place that Anko-sensei had told the members of Squad Nine to meet her at later that morning at eight. After the little battle that Hinata and he had won yesterday, she had taken all three of them to a little meal at Ichiraku once Kaname had finally come to. The instructor had proceeded to tell them that the reason they had been beaten so thoroughly was because she planned to begin them on missions as soon as possible, which meant that she had been testing them to see if they would die as soon as they were put into the field. As such, she had told them she was going to accept a mission as soon as they were done eating to begin their real training.

However, Naruto wasn't that naïve, despite whatever she might have thought. He felt as though he had probably figured out the true purpose of her test. After all, if Sarutobi was willing to give him a scroll containing the secrets of one of the greatest ninja of all time, what was to say that the Hokage wasn't going to have someone watch him, especially considering what Naruto was? There was not a doubt in his mind that he had specifically made Anko his sensei to watch his growth after what had happened to Mizuki. Naruto was nothing but a risky liability to the village now, probably.

"There a reason you're out this early, kid?" Called a newly familiar voice from behind him.

Naruto turned, not entirely surprised at the black-haired young woman that was standing behind him with a wiser-than-her-years smirk on her face. He had been so absorbed in thought that he had not even noticed the very instructor he was thinking about fall into step behind him.

"Good morning, Anko-sensei," He said coolly, keeping his expression blank and empty as he gazed at her while pretending to still be tired from being up so early. Quite frankly though, he had not slept more than ten hours in the last four nights, having woken up that very morning more than three hours ago, so he was exhausted but more focused and awake than he had been in a good year. So from behind the veil of a pair of not really sleepy blue eyes, he gauged her as best he could at that morning. "Is there something you need?"

"I was going to ask you that same question, Naruto. Is there any reason why you're out this early?" She replied, staring at him intently. "And don't give me that training crap, either."

Even though he really didn't feel like explaining himself at the moment, he had to at least admit that she knew how to read people.

"Possibly, if you feel like telling me why you were assigned to be Squad Nine's jonin sensei…"

"You should know that one; because the Sandaime Hokage wanted me to be the squad's leader," She answered in a slightly arrogant tone as she leaned in to look him in the face a little better. He could not help but take notice at the… the soul behind her eyes as she leaned in like that; he couldn't help but sense some little bit of anger and hatred she was holding in toward some unknown party. Even though he had only just met her yesterday, to Naruto it felt like that sense of anger just seemed to emanate from inside of her for some reason. The genin couldn't help but wonder why he felt it though. "Just like Kakashi with Squad Seven, Kurenai with Squad Eight, and Asuma with Squad Ten."

"…Don't give me that crap." He replied coldly.

"You wanna try that again?"

"I said don't give me that crap, Anko-sensei. You and I both know that there's a reason you beat the crap out of all of us yesterday; I just want to hear it from your own mouth instead of just my brain."

"What do you want me to say, Naruto? You want me to pat you on the back and say that Hokage doesn't care that you showed more potential for destruction than any ninja your age in the history of this village? Sorry, but just because you don't want to use your little friend doesn't mean that we don't want you to know how."

"So then I was right and Sarutobi wants you to watch me to make sure I don't become too difficult."

"Maybe," Anko shrugged her shoulders, taking a step back as she grinned down at him with a rather impish smirk. She knew that the Sandaime probably did not want her telling the boy that she had been sent to keep an eye on him while acting as Squad Nine's commander but there was no reason she couldn't just help him figure it out on his own. She had to admit, the kid really wasn't as dumb as Iruka had said he acted in the report he filed. "And maybe he wants to see what kind of a ninja you'll become if you're in control of your 'heritage'."

"So he wants you to force me to become the… the Kyuubi?"

"I didn't say that and I don't think I will. Now, go home and get packed." Anko finished, folding her arms over her chest.

"Why?"

"Squad Nine is leaving the village for a mission that will take us to the Land of Waves this morning. And I don't want to have to wait for you to get your underwear put up." Anko replied with a flat sarcasm. Naruto wanted to ask her why they were going to the Land of Waves but he knew it probably would not do much good due to how veiled and mostly useless she had been in revealing her and the Sandaime's motives so far. He figured it was better to just sit back and wait to hear her explain the mission to all three of them whenever he met with Hinata and Kaname in two hours. It probably would save him the headache of having to talk to her anymore at that moment. "Now, get going."

(I)

_Outside the Hokage Residence_

_8:15 that morning._

"What mission do you think they assigned us, my friends? I do not believe it could be anything too difficult due to our current level." Kaname said as he folded his arms over his chest. He, Naruto, and Hinata were all standing close to the front gate of the Hokage's Residence near a small scroll stand run by one of the cousins of one of the village elders, patiently awaiting Anko's arrival for the morning. Though Naruto was perfectly fine due to his rapid healing, the other two of them looked like they had slept painfully last night due to the beating that they had received from the sadistic sensei. "I would not be surprised if we are made to be labor assistance for the day."

Naruto watched his two teammates silently, keeping the conversation he had shared with Anko that morning private so he did not have to explain anything he really didn't want to. Besides, she had just told him of their destination, not of the mission itself.

"Naruto… are you okay?" Hinata asked, turning to face him rather shyly. He was surprised by the fact she had actually gone the entire sentence without turning even the slightest shade redder but he figured she might have just been forcing herself not to. After the fight with Anko last night, their sensei had taken all three of them out for a little meal, during which Naruto had intentionally set next to Hinata and continuously kept involving her in the conversation. For the most part of the whole thing, she had held her composure and forced herself to stay at peace, which is what he had been going for. After all, they couldn't really work together as teammates if she was too shy to talk or interact with him or Kaname. "I mean… you took the brunt of the… test yesterday."

"Oh, that; yeah I'm fine;" Naruto replied with a placating smile, putting on a cheery face to try and hide what was really going on inside him. "I'm a fast healer so that really wasn't anything. What about you, though?"

He took a step forward to stand in front of her, watching closely as her cheeks flushed almost unnoticeably as she began to freak at the fact he was only two feet away from her. Naruto smiled inwardly as her clear, pupil-free gray eyes went wide and her pallid skin took on a shade of light crimson like a faded red rose for only a moment. On the air around her he could smell the faintest scent of fresh lilacs, most likely the scent of the rich bath salts she used, he guessed. The Hyuga family, especially the main branch was one of the wealthiest families in the village so it would not surprise him if they only provided the best of items for their children to use. The scent itself was fantastic, a rich and fresh yet subdued aroma of a single lilac petal after the midnight rain; it was wonderful to have it playing about just right inside his nostrils.

"Anko-sensei is approaching us, Naruto." Kaname said from his leaning post, bringing back Naruto from his little scent experience.

The blonde turned to look where Kaname was gazing, his eyes catching the sight of a pair of shadowed silhouettes obscured by the rising morning sun. As he pushed his single crimson streak of hair out of his eyes, he could just barely make out the shape of Anko's hair, probably her most noticeable feature, as the two figures walked up the stairway less than a hundred yards away. The other figure, though he could not see his features was pronouncedly more male, walking with a gait that spoke of years of hard work and toil with one's own hands under the burning sun. Naruto could tell by his walk that the man, whoever he was, was probably no stranger to hard day's worth of work.

"Who's the old man?" Naruto asked coolly as Anko and the man walking beside her finally came up to the three of them. The man must have been in his early fifties, a somewhat wrinkled yet still very spry looking man dressed in a slightly tattered gray fishing kimono. He had a head of salt and pepper gray hair hidden underneath a thatched straw hat, coupled a grim-looking goatee of the same color as the rest of his head. Despite his clothing seeming mostly innocuous, the naturally toned muscles and deep scars that covered the majority of his visible skin was a sign that the man was probably not someone you'd want to meet in a dark alleyway if he was pissed. Naruto was intrigued already.

"Maggots, I'd like you all to meet our first client, Tazuna." Anko replied, staring directly at the Kyuubi child as she spoke, as though subliminally telling him to shut the hell up before she backhanded him. "And we are going to be escorting him back to his home in the Land of Waves."

(I)

_The road east to the Land of Waves_

_A little past 1:00 p.m._

They had been walking for nearly four hours, headed for the very country that Naruto had intended to run away to no more than two days prior. Naruto knew they were already beyond the edge of the forest that bordered Konohagakure; even from the treetops the village was no longer visible as they continued eastward toward the Land of Waves. After a little bit of an introduction, Anko had informed them all that they would be serving as bodyguards to this… client while they made their way to his home in the Land of Waves. He claimed to be a master bridge builder and just wanted protection from bandits that might try to attack him on the road but there was something a little fishy about that story given the man's physique.

From the look of him, Naruto could surmise Tazuna had not come from the northern part of the land, near Kiri where he had grown up, which meant he was one of the southern islanders. His skin was definitely dark enough to fit in down that far south but there was no way of figuring out which island he came from until they arrived due to the fact that there were dozens of islands in that area.

"So what's your story, Tazuna?" Anko asked dully, breaking the silence that had wrapped up the five of them over the last hour. Due to the events of the last two days, Naruto had become noticeably less talkative than he usually was but that was to be expected. He was mulling over a lot of information that still needed to be processed inside his mind so he was too absorbed in thought to really be a source of conversation. Anko could understand that; quite frankly she couldn't really imagine anyone who would be that chatty all things considered. And when his self-imposed hush was coupled with Hinata's shyness and Kaname's naturally reserved nature, the air around Squad Nine and their client had become stale in its quietness. "How did you come by the title of 'Master bridge builder'?"

"I don't know, maybe because I design and build bridges." Tazuna replied sarcastically as he tightened the straps of his pack. The old man had already insulted their squadron about ten times because of how young the genin were and frankly Anko was getting tired of his crap. "All I know is that I certainly didn't receive the title by making idle conversation a bodyguard and her half-pint minions."

"…Smart ass." Naruto murmured from his place behind the bridge builder. Despite all the distracting chatter work its way through his mind at that moment, he was finding it harder and harder not to want to beat the heck out of Tazuna every time the old man opened his mouth. Had the village not accepted the contract to protect the man, Naruto felt like he would have had fun laying one good left hook across his jaw and just going home to sleep. They were all young and were all not jonin like Anko was but that still didn't give the man a legitimate reason to keep cutting them down every time he had something to say. It was just plain rude.

"You got something to say, pipsqueak." Tazuna retorted, stopping to take the time and turn around to face Naruto fully. From behind the old wire-rimmed glasses the man looked down on the young shinobi with a mixture of what Naruto could only describe as annoyance and slight disgust.

"Yeah, why don't you shut up so this trip doesn't become any longer than it already is." Naruto spat back spiritedly, recovering some of the old attitude in his whiskers. He was tired of having to hear every cutting remark from the grouchy old geezer and wanted to have some peace during the two day trip back to the Land of Waves. "You're about as judgmental and annoying as Sasuke ever was and–"

"Naruto!" Anko said tersely, commanding him to shut up. With a slight swagger in her movement she leaned in and whispered into his ear. "Just because the client is a jackass doesn't mean we have the right to tell him so. The village is being paid to protect him so shut up and just keep walking."

"…Fine." Naruto replied dejectedly.

Naruto simply grimaced as he took back up his position behind Tazuna with Kaname and Hinata on either side of the man while Anko-sensei led on from the front. The light breeze that had accompanied them for the better part of the morning had died as they began to walk again, giving way to a humid heat that soaked the five of them in a fresh sweat. Overhead, the sun was just barely beginning to head down the western half of the sky as it beat down on all of them like a heavy blanket. Around them, the forest had grown silent but the young blonde genin could only assume that the shouting had scared any of the birds that might have been nesting in the trees away. It was almost peaceful to hear nothing like that.

"Does anyone else hear that?" As if on cue, Hinata spoke up, breaking the silence that Naruto had been enjoying so greatly. "There… is a whistle or something like it coming from the left."

Though still annoyed by the renewed conversation, Naruto could not help but listen a little more intently. Sure enough, a split second later he heard the same sound she had just spoke of, a distinctly eerie low-pitched whistle that cut through the forest softly. The sound echoed on the wind, reverberating almost unnoticeably as it continued on toward the five sets of ears that were now looking for it. It was… familiar, something that Naruto was sure he had heard time and time again, but he could not place any sort of memory with it. So, instead he just turned his attention back to the road they traveled on.

"Watch out!" Kaname shouted.

A single bo-shuriken tore through the group as Anko shoved Tazuna to the ground, slashing at the air right above where his neck had been a split second earlier.

Naruto went wide-eyed and alert as the flying knife planted itself into a tree on his right on the other side of the road.

Five sets of eyes turned to the left of the road as the chorus of the sailing shuriken was joined by a duet of heavy breathing, emanating from two wildly cloaked men standing on the branches of two of the trees lining the road. On the left arm of one and the right arm of the other was a massive metal gauntlet that extended all the way up their forearms. From the base of each gauntlet was an incredibly long chain linking the two men together, its links made of many hundreds of razor-sharp shuriken blades that glowed in a dull red because of blood that had dried to it. Each of the men wore breathing masks, little air filters that covered the bottom part of both of their faces to the eyes. On their heads, meanwhile, rested two prominently displayed hitai-ates that Naruto instantly recognized bore the emblem of Kirigakure no Sato.

"It looks like you missed, brother." One of them said wickedly, his voice sounding so menacingly alien from beneath the mask he wore.

"Only because you wanted to let them walk into our little trap instead of simply killing them." The other replied, swaying the gauntlet on his arm slightly. Whereas the first one was simply wearing a set of faded camouflage fatigues, the one that had thrown the dagger was covered in a black cloak that obscured most of his body. His headband was made out of blackened steel and had one singular horn jutting up from the top of it like some sort of deranged crown he had made himself. "I guess we'll just have to finish them off together."

"I was hoping you'd say that, brother." The first one said, moving his eyes from his apparent sibling on the other tree branch to the five travelers on the road beneath him. Naruto could feel their threatening presence so clearly, feel lethality and thirst for blood every time they opened their mouths. It was as though he could… could smell and taste the very bloodlust that emanated from them as it lingered in the warm sticky air. The feeling, the way it played at his senses and seemed to tease him, was almost exhilarating in a way. Deep inside of him, it was almost as if a feral desire to fight them was pushing its way up to his clear blue eyes. Whoever these two were, they had come looking for death and it was putting him on a wicked edge just waiting to see what they were capable of. "After all, I don't think our boss would mind one bit if we had a little… fun before we returned."

The cloaked brother looked down upon the group as well now. Naruto could somehow smell the young man start to sweat as his eyes particularly locked on to the two female members of their group. "I believe that I see what you mean."

"Who are you two? Answer me now or I will kill both of you." Anko demanded, also picking up on their… motives as well.

"She wants to know who we are, brother." The cloaked one said with a sadistically dark tone.

"Well then; I say we introduce ourselves to our new friends." The first brother before he and his cohort started to laugh manically from beneath the cover of their breathing masks, the darkly mirthful sound ringing eerily foreign as it passed through their individual air filters. Each of the two of them simultaneously turned their attention back to Anko, who had already drawn a kunai and was now standing poised to attack as she had moved in front of Tazuna. The brothers though seemed unaffected by this show of willingness and simply stared at her with a sinister and nefarious glint in each set of eyes.

"We are the Demon Brothers." They said in complete sync as the stood up straight to face their prey. "And we have been sent to kill each and every one of you."

As one they leapt from their individual tree branches, the chain between them swaying as they raced down toward the ground where Anko stood. The newly-promoted sensei, meanwhile, just stood there completely still as she seemed to take in the information about their fighting style just by watching them for that brief moment as they fell. The second they hit the ground, she followed by leaving it, her feet kicking off as she leapt for the cloaked brother with the kunai drawn. Her attack speed was phenomenal as she landed a direct hit, connecting with his uncovered left arm with her knife as she thrust downward. With the kind of dedication that came from seeing years of the atrocities of war, she immediately launched into another attack despite the fact she was now covered in blood splatter from her first target.

"Not so fast, bitch." Though she had already wounded him, the cloaked brother delivered a powerful kick to the back of her head as she turned her attention to his brother. Anko went sprawling, coming to a halt on the dirt road a few feet away from Hinata's feet. "My brother wants to save you for later."

"Protect… Tazuna," Anko said weakly as she shakily climbed back to her feet, a thin stream of blood already pouring down the side of her face from the devastating blow she just took. Immediately the three genin complied, taking up positions on all sides of the man so as to use their very own bodies as shields should the Demon Brothers stop their sensei. Naruto could feel something; he could sense something not quite right about this battle as Anko once again took up a fighting position to try her hand at damaging the terrifying duo again. Her movements were just slower than they had been when she had been beating the crap out of him and she so far not even tried to do a jutsu but just blindly and moronically rushed at her twin opponents. "Take him and run!"

Anko turned back to them for just a split second to command them, a mistake that the cloaked brother took advantage of.

His speed was phenomenal as he shot through the air, bringing the side of his massive right gauntlet crashing down to Anko's left shoulder. Immediately he followed up with another sharp kick, this one sweeping out her legs to put her down on the ground at his feet. One more destructive smash downward with his brutal gauntlet and her body went limp as he knocked her unconscious in the most viciously cruel fashion. With a dark chuckle he put her on the ground, his brother in camouflage approaching him while eying their catch before his eyes moved up to face Naruto and the rest of Squad Nine.

"Well, well, well; it looks like we've got our plaything, which means that we can have some fun as soon as we deal with the kids and the target." The cloaked brother said menacingly, turning his gaze from Anko to Tazuna as well.

"Then on to the brats," In synchronized motion they both took a step toward the remaining four people, two pairs of eyes glowing with the merciless corruption that consumed their souls. Naruto could sense Tazuna tightening up behind him, the scent of his body becoming rigidly frozen in fear while his adrenaline and sweat began screaming from him a pungent odor to the kitsune. The boy himself found his usually cheerful mind going blank with nothing but an almost animalistic thought process taking over, replacing all the unnecessarily human thoughts at that moment. He no longer saw the Demon Brothers as a pair of tough opponents but rather saw their movements themselves, recalled the scent of the air as they made their attack.

"Brother, would you allow me one more concession before we finish this up?" The camouflaged one spoke up again, his eyes still scanning the members of Squad Nine like he was sizing up a piece of steak. The man's voice was sinister and sinful as he spoke in through the harshly alien mask.

"Heh... Hmm, I was wondering how long it was going to take for you to ask for her, too but I had thought that older one would be enough for you." His cloaked companion replied, laughing hellishly from beneath his mask. Naruto's eyes immediately shot to Hinata, instantly picking up on just what they were talking about as they continued their slow death march to the group of four. Hinata, too, had picked up on their deviled conversation and her body went as rigid as Tazuna's. Naruto could smell the fear that quickly began to grip at her. "But then again, you always were the pedophile of the family."

"I'm sorry that not all of us can aspire like you to our father's grandeur of simply wanting to murder the whole world like you do." The camouflaged brother retorted sadistically merrily, his voice echoing with the same murderous and terrifying spirit that his brother possessed. "Some of us have to give in to our more… animalistic instincts at times."

Hinata was frozen as they took one more step toward her as she was the one directly in front of Tazuna.

"Very well, you may have your… fun." The cloaked one finished.

"Good, then let's kill them so we can get down to it."

In the blink of an eye the two brothers launched themselves at the four of them, particularly at Hinata and Tazuna as they were already directly in their path. Yet, even despite their ungodly speed, to Naruto it felt as they slowed down and the world began to echo with each one of the few steps they ran toward Squad Nine. His eyes began to… bleed red as he watched them, picking up every little nuance of their nearly identical scents. From deep inside of, the burning of intense fire began to well up, emanating from the very chakra that had been sealed up as he quickly thought of how best to kill them.

"NARUTO!" Hinata screamed as the first one lunged for her, the chain between the two brothers clanking and ringing in the open air.

**_"Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu._**" 

(I)

"Master Tazuna, I think you owe my team and me an explanation. Immediately." Anko's voice was weathered and echoed with an age that had been put in her thanks to the events of the last hour. Kaname was silently staring on down the seemingly endless road from where he was kneeling next to one of the many charred spots on the dirt path. His eyes, like those of his bruised and battered sensei, seemed distant yet focused as his mind once again all he had just seen. "Why were they after you?"

"…Have you heard of Gato?" Tazuna said wearily, sinking down to the ground.

"Gato… of Gato Industries? The shipping magnate?" The sensei asked, immediately becoming interested in what shady secret he might have been hiding that could involve such a tremendously wealthy and powerful man. Gato was one of the richest men in the entire world, controlling a shipping empire that ran supplies for each one of the major countries across both land and sea. His name was synonymous with the word success in nearly every single village from Suna all the way to the northernmost reaches of Kiri. Maybe it was because of this that, if Tazuna had made such a powerful enemy out of them, Anko could not help but wonder why he had only dispatched two chunin to do the job of taking him out.

"He may seem like a harmless businessman on the surface but I can assure you he is one of the vilest creatures to have ever walked the face of this planet." Tazuna replied, the empty gaze become cold and steeled. "Underneath the umbrella of his massive shipping corporation lies a mafia whose sheer interest and purpose in life seems to be to suck the Land of Waves dry of each and every single cent we have."

"What do you mean?" Anko asked curiously.

"In the name of business, Gato has taken control of all the shipping lines to and from the Land of Waves to prevent the flow of free trade in and out of the country. He controls all the goods that are imported through the water and forces village who wants supplies to line his pockets to get them. As most of the people in the country are already too poor to even begin to pay his fees, the country has begun to wither and die under his tyrannical and shady dealings."

"So how does this pertain to you then? Why is he after you?"

"As I said earlier, I am a master bridge builder." Tazuna answered, removing the glasses from the bridge of his nose and wiping them on his shirt. Anko could easily see the accentuated wrinkles and lines that covered his old face, a sign of the hardship and struggle of his long and tedious life. "For the last year or so I have been in charge of building a bridge that would extend from the mainland on the edge of the Land of Fire all the way across the sea to the main island of the Land of Waves. The bridge is very nearly completed, only about two and a half weeks away from being completely ready. When it is, it will provide us unhindered access to the mainland supplies and allow us to reopen a free trade with the other countries once again instead of having to deal with Gato."

"So by finishing the bridge, you're going to be cutting in to his bottom line." Anko responded. "And that's probably not something he's taking too kindly to."

"Exactly; I knew that there would be at least one attempt made on my life before I reached home and needed protection from whoever he would send."

"And instead of telling the Hokage all this, you decided to say that you were worried about bandits and risk our necks defending your worthless ass. This is potentially an A-class mission but you paid our village for a C-class." She responded coldly. Had it not been for… him… she and her team would probably be lying in a ditch somewhere on the side of the road where the buzzards would be free to pick at whatever remains the Demon Brothers had not spread their diseases on. Had it not been for him, they would all be dead now.

"I'm sorry… but I had no other choice." The old man's face went mournful as he said these words, his tone taking on a somber quality that proved his sincerity in speaking. "My village is too poor to afford a full squad of jonin so I had to lie to you all."

"…" Anko thought over his words; it would be up to her to determine whether it was safe enough to go on or whether she should return with her genin back to the village and leave this bastard to rot until Gato sent his next hit man. On one hand, she needed to report to the Hokage regarding Naruto's latest development but, on the other hand, the field experience of fighting true shinobi might be all that he needed to begin to learn some measure of control over his little problem. She could test him with this mission but that was dangerous, risky and at least somewhat stupid. However, she really didn't have a choice. "…Okay. Judging by the fact these ninja were from Kiri, we have at most maybe three days before their boss learns of their failure and another assassin reaches us. We will escort you to your village as originally planned but you keep one more secret, one more tiny bit of information about anything, and I swear that you won't have to worry about Gato killing you anymore because I'll do the job for him. Got that?"

Tazuna nodded silently, taking note of the utter and complete seriousness in her voice. She meant what she said.

"Kaname, stand guard over him for me. We leave soon." Anko stood up, wiping off a smudge of caked-on blood from the corner of her mouth. In only two days she had to put up with more crap than she had in the last year of active duty, all thanks to the three ninja who now looked to her for some measure of guidance in their growth as shinobi. She had already begun to be pissed at the Hokage for assigning this mission to her and hating herself for accepting it. Taking her first step into the forest, she could only cover her head with her hand in a half-assed attempt to stop the headache that was building in her skull. "I need a drink."

(I)

Naruto knelt down silently, his blue eyes looking off into the ocean of trees below with a distant and dazed look in his blue irises. Beside him, the small waterfall bubbled peacefully as it descended down into that massive forest. From the edge of the cliff they stood on at that moment, one could look clear to the edge of the northern horizon and still see nothing but the vast forest for miles without end, broken only by a few lakes and rivers sparsely spread throughout. Seeing the sight, seeing the seemingly infinite distance of it all made him feel smaller somehow, feeling even more out of place in the world. Yet at that moment, he didn't really care because he knew he was out of place in the world. That much was clear.

"A-are you okay?" She asked blandly from behind him. Her voice sounded so… so frightened still but surprisingly not because of him. From the scent around her, Naruto could somehow tell that her fear lay still with the thought of what the two of them might have done to her.

He didn't say a word but simply nodded, not knowing what he could really say at that moment as his mind processed all that had happened.

Naruto did not feel anything this time, not like he had when Mizuki had attacked him. This time was different, more instinct and less fear… but he guessed it was because he had more willingly gave in to that side of himself this time around instead of falling into it out of necessity. This time, he had almost wanted its help, desired the power that it brought him instead of fearing it like he had the previous afternoon. Maybe it was because it really was a life or death situation unlike Anko-sensei's little test. But if that was the case, how could he face all of them, knowing deep inside that he had actually wanted to take the lives of the brothers?

For some reason, he could still smell the horrible odor that their bodies had left behind when they were consumed by the flames. As he thought about it, he recalled how he could smell almost everything around him. Maybe that was just part of the effect his other side was having on him though.

"Naruto…" From behind him, Hinata took another step forward, now only a few feet away from where he sat wordlessly next to the water at the cliff's edge. Because of her eyes, she had seen what had really happened back on the road when he stopped the two horrifyingly maleficent psychos that were going to attack her. She knew that something inside of him had changed, even if for only a moment and all the sudden the chakra flow in his body had drastically increased to a level greater than that of any adult she had ever even seen. Her Byakugan gave her a front row seat as he called upon all the excess chakra within him and gathered it together in singular force before he used the fireball technique most of them at least studied back in the Academy. Then, he released the blaze from within him.

The threat of the brothers disappeared as their bodies instantly burnt to ash before her very eyes. With the fury of a hurricane, the fireball shot down the road a good fifty feet, devouring everything in its path with the simplest of ease before it finally dissipated. Trees went up and were consumed immediately and the ground was left black and ashen. And all this destruction came from one single young man her age.

"… You want to know the worst part of this whole damned thing, Hinata? Deep inside, I know that I don't even care about what I did to them!" Naruto screamed irrationally, climbing to his feet. He pulled up a stone from the edge of the water and tossed it over the cliff, watching as it flew out into the open air before shooting down for the ground so far away. "I just freaking killed two people and I don't even care abou–"

He was cut off as she wrapped her arms around his chest, holding his arms against the side of his body with all the strength she could muster.

"You saved my life, Naruto…" She finished in a near whisper. "That's all I know and all I care about."

From the edge of the tree-line behind them, Anko watched silently, not wanting to say a word at that moment. She would give Naruto at least a minute of peace before they left; it was the human thing to do.

* * *

Author's Note: Finally finished. It took me longer than I had anticipated finishing this chapter (you can thank Lost Odyssey being released on Wednesday and Single Appreciation Day on Thursday for that). Anyways, that's that so I'll be back soon with Chapter 6. In the meantime, drop a review; I'd love to hear what people think about the story so far. Anyways, I'm out. Peace.


	7. Chapter 6: Within the Mist, Part I

Author's Note: Well back finally with Chapter 6. I really think I'm going to have to change the rating of the story to M with all things considered. The ideas I've thought up for the plot are going to take a far more sinister and dark tone than it did in the manga or anime so it looks like this may be one of the last chapters that stay T. In regards to the reviews, it's kinda cool how people keep guessing about issues I plan to address in the next chapter when they post one (i.e. the scroll or Kushina's involvement in the story). Anyways, to those of you who read or reviewed the last chapter, thanks. Now that that's out of the way, chapter time.

"I…" indicates speech.

_"I…"_ indicates inner thought.

_**"I…" **_indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

* * *

Chapter 6: Within The Mist, Part I

"Kushina, you do realize that if you go with this that you may and will be removed from your son any time you are dispatched, don't you?" Jiraiya asked nervously. It wasn't often that he would get worked up over something but this was not exactly an every-day situation that was taking place in front of him. This was a decision that could change Naruto's life for the better or worse forever. The fact that she could make such a monumental choice in such a short period of time after what had happened the previous week was not something that he could easily overlook. "You won't be free to check up on him or even to remain in contact with the two of us to keep an eye on any new developments that may arise. "

"I understand that fully, Jiraiya." She replied, outwardly remaining calm as she folded one of her legs over the other. Inside her however, he stomach had begun to churn and toss. "I have put much time and though into this course of action. Believe me when I say it's not one I take lightly."

"But…" Beside him, Sarutobi raised a hand to quiet his old pupil. Jiraiya looked at him for a moment, as if wanting at least some little explanation before he simply nodded and closed his mouth. The ancient Sandaime knew there would be no changing her mind in this regarding this issue and that it was just best to allow her to make her decision. Quite frankly, Naruto would question her enough the next time he saw her so she really didn't need to have the two of them working her over anymore than they already had. Whether or not they believed this was wise, they really had no grounds to deny her. All they could do is just sit back and allow this to happen.

"Your request is approved." Sarutobi said with his usually placid tone. Adjusting the pipe that almost never left his mouth, he flashed a wiry and wise old grin as he leaned back in his chair. His gaze slowly drifted downward to the small item on the desk in front of him that represented an ideal of so much significance for the village despite its size. He let his mind wander for just a second as he poured over all the reasons she had given them regarding her wish, finally just accepting the fact that she would wear the article as honorably as her son would. "From this day forward, you are no longer viewed as an ex-shinobi from the Land of Whirlpools but are now a full-fledged jonin of this village, Konohagakure no Sato. Take your hitai-ate and join our ranks."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage." Kushina replied stoically as she tied the headband over her head where she had once worn her own village's symbol with such pride before she had become a mother and given up the ninja life.

(I)

_The path to the Land of Waves_

_Two days later._

Naruto was tired of walking. They had been walking for the last two and a half days save a brief respite earlier that morning when they had ridden a little ferry from the edge of the Land of Fire to a small landing about a two-hour walk away from Tazuna's village. It had been a mentally and physically exhausting journey from Konoha all the way out this far to the middle of nowhere to get the lying bridge-builder's home. Luckily, after today they could finally turn back around and _go back_ the way they had come for the last two days until they reached Konoha, at which point Naruto would disappear for a day beneath the covers of his bed until he had fully slept off the exhaustion and, more importantly, memories of the last week for once and for all. Quite frankly, he needed some time to himself to collect whatever loose thoughts might have been rattling around inside his skull.

Judging by their mostly silent and sour expressions, his teammates must have been feeling the same way. Hinata kept glancing over in his direction every few minutes as though she were trying to telepathically ask him if they were done with the mission yet while Kaname just kept his distance from everyone. Naruto could only guess his behavior was because of what the blonde had done to the Demon brothers.

Anko, finally, was probably the most out-of-sorts of their cheerful little band of misfits and assassination targets at that moment.

Ever since she had gotten the crap kicked out of her by one of the two piles of ash that now lay on the side of the eastern road, she had become quiet and focused, every part of her entirely dedicated to not allowing such a life-threatening situation to befall any of them again. For the first time since she had become their jonin sensei, she was actually acting like their teacher in the manner that she held herself with the brave and business-only attitude she had so thoroughly adopted over the last two days. However, Naruto knew she was still scared; she was absolutely terrified about all the what-ifs regarding that day that still lingered in the air and suffocated all the talk out of the five of their throats. Thanks to the changes that he was going through, he could almost taste it on her in the chemicals her body was producing.

"Tazuna is there any other path or road to your village from the port we arrived at or is this the only one?" Anko's voice rang clear with a false calm, a façade for her genin pupils.

"This is it," He replied flatly, adjusting the straps on his shoulder pack for what seemed like the fifty thousandth time this trip. From behind his wire-rimmed bifocals his eyes were beginning to show the same wear that Squad Nine was exhibiting but, then again, he had had to go the whole way knowing that there were people coming to try and kill him at one point or another. With a stressful situation like that, it was only natural for him to be weary. "We're still about two hours out but we should be there by one this afternoon."

"As I thought." Anko responded gravely. Her stone-cold gaze shifted immediately to the three charges walking behind her, catching each of them in a stare that seemed to perfectly convey the potential direness of their current situation. Even brand new Academy graduates like the three of them knew what she was thinking because of the fact that Tazuna had a hit out on him: if they were going to be attacked again, now would be the time for their enemy to do it. Once they got into the town it would be too risky but, out here, it could simply be explained as a bandit attack. "Hinata, Kaname, Naruto; take up the defensive formation around Tazuna for the rest of the journey. I'll take point, the rest of you form up around him and be on your guard."

Naruto and the other two nodded gravely. This wasn't the time for objections or for questions, this was time to just obey and get the mission over finally without the five of them losing their lives to some unknown enemy.

They walked on, heading down the same dirt path that had taken them toward their destination for the last hour since they had left the port town where they had hit this island. On the left side of the road was a lake with murky blue water that seemed so dirty Naruto would not have been surprised if it carried the disease of an entire fish nation with in its dark depths. It was as if the forest around it sensed this dirtiness from the lake and was affected by as the very air seemed stale and tasteless.

"I do not know if anyone else has noticed but the air has become laden with fog lately." Kaname said, taking notice of a detail that seemed rather irrelevant to Naruto. The dark-skinned boy had been uncharacteristically silent since the Kyuubi's little display two days prior but Naruto could only imagine what he was trying to process after having seen another boy do something like that. If it had been Anko that had performed such a devastating jutsu, that would have been a completely different story; she was a jonin, after all. He, however, was a twelve-year-old boy who had been in the bottom half of the class since he had started at the Academy that had made it a regular habit to show off and then fails in all types of class. For him to suddenly begin to show a usage of chakra more potent than the two Kiri ninja he had killed there had to be some explanation as to how. Naruto, though, did not feel like really telling him or Hinata what he was. "It has been clouding out the sun ever since we reached the edge of this lake, my friends."

"That is a rather commonplace sight in areas near the coast." Tazuna said dully. "I do have to admit, though, it's thicker than it usually is today."

"Naruto, where were the chunin that attacked us from?" Hinata asked him in a near whisper. Her pupil-free eyes were growing wider and wider as a look of realization slowly crept across them, the milky gray irises almost twitching. He could pick up some inflection of fear in her voice as he turned to face her, noticing subtle changes in Hinata's personality that were not there a moment ago before Kaname had started talking about the fog. "They were… from Kirigakure no Sato, right?"

"Yeah," He replied flatly. Despite his bland response to her, his mind began to ask questions he hadn't thought to ask a moment ago, forcing him to begin to take in their surroundings. His mind… or rather the Kyuubi's keen instincts… started to pour over what her fear could indicate, thinking about the connection to Kiri-nin and fog. _'Why would she care where the ninja were from if they're gone now, and what would that have to do with the fog?__ Wait… fog and Kirigakure… the Kirigakure no Jutsu! She has __seen me do it during Academy exams for the last year and a half since I learned the technique and… and–!' _

His eyes shot open as he realized the train of thought that his Hyuga-clan teammate had been following.

"It's not fog, it's mist!" He nearly shouted out, immediately catching Hinata's gaze with his own completely horrified stare. In front of their little group, Anko instantly whipped around to face her students, as though about to ask them what they were talking about before her mind processed the information too. Naruto didn't know if she had any experience dealing with Kiri ninja but it was common knowledge that shinobi from the Land of Waves, like their previous assassins, favored water-style jutsu. It was just like the prevalence of fire-related attacks from so many of the genin, chunin and jonin from the Land of Fire. One of most common ninjutsu in Konoha was the fireball technique as it fit the country's element. The same being said about Kiri-nin meant that…

"Everybody down!" Kaname shouted, pushing Tazuna to the ground.

Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and jerked her down with him as he hit the floor. Across from them, Anko dived down to cover Tazuna's body with her own.

She hit the ground within a hair of a second of getting her life snuffed out as a gargantuan sword flew over the five bodies on the dirt.

The massive blade cleaved a scar through the empty air where their heads had been only a split second earlier, tearing right over the five of them as it sailed only inches away from their bodies. It brought in more of the steadily thickening mist with it, a thick gray cloud of water-vapor that slowly settled around them and painted the surrounding area a dull, eerie gray. The mist only served to just barely conceal the movement of the sword while the blade itself slammed into one of the ancient trees that lined the edge of the small lake.

Naruto slowly raised his eyes to view the blade; it was a beastly thing that was easily longer than he was tall. It was mainly just a single blade save for a semi-circular notch that had been cut out of the back of it and sharpened. From the tree it was embedded in, the blade was sticking up at an angle like a fake metal branch.

"Guard Tazuna!" Anko roared as she climbed to her feet while her eyes darted from tree to tree all around them for any speck of information that might give away the assassin's location. Whoever it was, Naruto could already tell the killer at least wielded a massive sword larger than any the boy had ever seen and was a ninja of Kiri based on the jutsu he had used to conceal his movements. Those to facts coupled together led his mind to only one conclusion based on the fact that, unless the village had significantly changed in the last four years since he left, almost no one wielded swords like that. It had to be one of the missing-nin of the Seven. "Where is he?!"

"Don't worry about finding me, that's not going to be the hard part." Standing atop the handle of his giant sword was now a gaunt and ghastly-looking masked man.

_'Oh Kami, it's him! It's actually him!' _Naruto's mind shouted, looking on a man who had been one of the blonde-headed teen's idols since he was a kid, even despite the fearsome reputation that he had. His eyes were filled with a strange mixture of fear and admiration, a gaze born partially of the situation and also of the village he had been raised in. Naruto had always looked up to the Seven, just like any other kid in Kiri had because they represented the best of the best in the village: they were the best at genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu. They were the royal guards to the Mizukage himself and their name was a source of pride for the village but of fear for their enemies. He could only react in a hushed whisper of sheer wonder, "It's really one of the Seven; it's Zabuza Momochi!"

Anko looked at her blonde student as he exclaimed these words before her wide-eyed stare went back to the sword-standing shinobi. She had heard the name before; it was in the bingo book she had been given by the village when she had rejoined the ninja ranks again. The description that had accompanied it was of a sadistic, murderous psychopath who had abandoned his own village and even tried to assassinate his own Mizukage.

"So the old man is the target and all he has is a couple of brats and their babysitter to defend him? Disappointing." Zabuza spat as he stared down at the five of them. Naruto, Hinata and Kaname had all stood with their squad leader and had surrounded Tazuna to at least hopefully prevent a direct attack against the old bridge builder. Kaname looked as completely calm and collected as normal, as though he were used to looking his own imminent death in the face time and again. Hinata, meanwhile, was looking at the wild Kiri-nin with complete fear because of the massive razor-edged sword that had nearly decapitated all of them only a moment earlier. Naruto, though, just couldn't believe it was actually him. "To think that Gouzu and Meizu were defeated by this pathetic group; heh. They deserve to be killed for such an insulting loss."

Anko spoke up finally, reading a shuriken in her hand as she opened her mouth. "Well if it makes you feel any better, they were. Leave this place and we'll consider not killing you as well."

Naruto could feel his teammates and Tazuna both staring at him when Anko spoke those words; his actions were not something anyone could have easily forgotten, after all. However, he found himself caring less and less about what had happened with the Demon Brothers. As Hinata had said during their few minutes of time together back in the Land of Fire, the duo would have probably raped her and Anko as well as killed all five of the group had they not been stopped. Naruto still did not like the fact that he had been the one to kill them but he had done what needed to be done to save the lives of Squad Nine so why should he let it affect him?

"Heh," Zabuza laughed as he leaned in and looked directly down at their jonin instructor. His voice was deep and gruff with evidence of years of hard life, like that of a smoker who had done a pack a day for the last decade. "So you really killed the Brothers, did you? Well then I guess I owe you a thank you because you just saved me from having to pay them after I kill you all."

"I'm telling you, leave!" Anko roared, bringing up her shuriken as she readied herself for the battle that was inevitably approaching now.

Zabuza started laughing manically, his tone sending shivers down the spine of each and every one of the five of them. With the skill and grace of a feline, he leapt high and flipped down from his perch atop his sword, grabbing the hilt of the blade as he fell past it. The sword came clear of the tree easily and swung around with its master as the shinobi strapped it back around his back. Landing on his feet no more than ten feet away from Anko and the group, Zabuza just stared up at them with a look of pure disgust. His eyes glimmered with an intense blaze of murderous intent that seemed to burn Naruto in the very spot he stood in. Beside him, the blonde could feel Kaname and Hinata's bodies tense up as well while Zabuza's eyes slowly moved over each of them, sizing them up as though he were judging which one he would kill first.

"You really aren't in any position to boss me around... My Zanbatō is going to carve you up." He said menacingly as his body straightened up and he stood up fully. His hands began to shoot through a set of signs with rapid efficiency, each position formed in perfect unison. Even with the speed of his signs, Naruto could tell the jutsu he was about to use; it was one that the boy had been using since he started at the Academy, after all. "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

It rolled in quickly.

The mist began to seep in from all around them, encircling the six people with the simplest of ease as it dyed the air a murky gray that chilled each of them to the bone. Zabuza took only a few steps back and he was gone within the fog, a silent and unseen demon that haunted the three genin, their instructor and client all entirely. From within that fog, Naruto could still feel Zabuza's murderous gaze locked squarely on him, possibly the effects of some horrifyingly maddening genjutsu that tried to eat away at what little ounce of sanity the boy still had at that moment. It terrified Naruto to know that someone like Zabuza existed, someone of such an immoral conscience that he could kill all of them and not even twitch in the least.

"Naruto…. Naruto, I'm scared!" Hinata fiercely whispered. Even though she was covering another side of Tazuna, her tiny fragile hand slipped in to his rapidly, catching the kitsune boy off-guard. "He's going to kill us!"

"Kaname, you and Naruto concentrate on protecting Tazuna and Hinata," Anko ordered harshly, not even turning to face them as her eyes continued to scan the mist for any sign of their attacker. Of all of the five of them, Naruto could feel the most calm emanating from her but it was coupled with a dark and sinister presence, an almost evil that seeped from her chakra as she focused it. "Hinata, activate your Byakugan immediately."

"Y-yes, ma'am!" Hinata squeaked. In his hand her grip tightened instantly as she forced her eyes to see more than what was possible for a normal human. The Hyuga clan's kekkai genkai was truly a remarkable trait because of how it allowed any member of the clan to see anyone's chakra with just a little bit of practice. It made Hinata a marvelous tracker-nin and the perfect tool for penetrating the fog and finding Zabuza as he hid within it.

"I want you to locate Zabuza using your Byakugan but do not say his location loudly. Whisper it to me." Anko whispered intensely, turning to face her students for the first time since Zabuza had landed on his blade. She was truly skeptical that this rag-tag group of genin could possibly take down a true jonin-level ninja like Zabuza, even with Naruto's little 'gift'. However, the only other option she had was to sit here and wait for the master of mist to step out and face her. Seeing as he could be hiding anywhere within the deep fog and was supposedly known for his silent assassination skills, she severely had her doubts as to whether or not he would do such a thing.

"I-I've found him, Anko-sensei." Hinata murmured into their jonin sensei's ear. The girl was still holding onto Naruto's hand fiercely, as though it were some kind of life raft and she were drowning in the open ocean. "He's… still exactly where he was w-when he conjured this mist. He's just standing there."

"Interesting talent..." Whispered Zabuza's menacing from directly behind Naruto.

His head whipped around only to see Zabuza standing there with his sword drawn, kneeling down in the midst of them.

Naruto felt his head go dizzy and the breath escape his lungs as Zabuza's foot slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling through the mist like a rag doll. The swordsman spun on the spot to follow up by delivering a devastating backhand to Kaname which sent him in the opposite direction of his orange-clad teammate. Naruto watched wide-eyed as the brutal missing-nin started to swing his giant blade around towards Tazuna with the simplest of ease, preparing to slice right through the bridge-builder to complete his mission. Anko beat him to the attack by just a hair of a second, sending the shuriken in her hand clear through the Mist ninja's neck.

Instantly his body – sword and all – were reduced to a puddle of rank water that fell to the ground like someone had just poured it from a bucket.

Naruto gawked at the familiar technique. He had used it time and time again since he had first learned it back before he enrolled in the Konoha Academy but he had never seen it used by another person before, let alone so skillfully. Naruto himself couldn't conjure up clones that were that completely powerful; his water clones were always weaker than he was and were never able to be as stealthy as the clone that had attacked them. He couldn't help but exclaim when he saw it, "A water clone!"

"No shit, kiddo! Hinata, cover _him_!" Anko shouted from where she was standing. The jonin pushed Hinata back towards Tazuna with the simplest of ease as she turned her attention back to the spot that the Hyuga girl had said Zabuza was standing. Her hands began to shoot through the signs for snake, ram, monkey, boar, horse, and finally tiger as she gathered as much chakra as she could focus into a single blast. She knew the attack was a long shot but she needed to be able to see and, with all the mist that surrounded them, it was her best chance. With an intense glare plastered on her face, Anko raised her right hand in front of her mouth to form a funnel. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"

The colossal fireball shot from her mouth like a rampaging bull, creating a huge heat wave that burned the mist from the air itself while it soared towards where Hinata said Zabuza was standing. Even before it reached its target, her two bare hands flashed through another four symbols. Beneath her feet, a pile of leaves that had been kicked up in the blast swirled about as though twisting in a small whirlwind/

"You missed me!" Zabuza roared as he dove down at her with his Zanbatō from the same tree he had originally planted the blade. Through the now-clearer sky, he fell like the angel of death as he brought his blade down, cutting right down through Anko with the slightest effort. Instantly killed by the attack, she fell lifelessly to the ground as her blood spilled out and began to stain the ground a deep crimson. The sight and smell of it all assaulted Naruto's over-worked senses horribly while his mind spun with what had just happened to his sensei. Zabuza, however, didn't seem fazed at all by the terrible scene before him. "Pathetic."

"Come on, that the best you got?!" Anko's voice rang out clear as day from her perch on a tree behind Tazuna.

The body that had been laying lifeless on the ground in front of them disappeared instantly leaving behind no trace of its existence, even the blood that had so thoroughly seeped in through the ground vanishing when the genjutsu ended. Instead, there was nothing more than a blank patch of dirt that had been sliced into when Zabuza brought down his sword. Naruto, Kaname and Hinata's eyes simultaneously darted from the dirt to where Anko's voice had resounded from only to see their sensei standing there completely unharmed. The woman looked completely focused and utterly merciless as she returned their stare but her opponent meanwhile just looked dumbfounded by her impressive tactic.

"Naruto, Hinata, Kaname; defend Tazuna! Zabuza's mine!" She shouted.

Naruto nodded and forced himself up off the ground before rushing over to where Hinata was standing. Taking her left flank as Kaname took the right, the three of them formed a human barrier between Tazuna and the psychotic mist-nin. From behind them, Anko leapt down from the branch she was on to land gracefully in front of the three of them, staring down Zabuza with a cold and unflinching gaze.

"You might be more fun that I thought." Zabuza spoke coldly, laughing as he stared down the female jonin. "But you're still nowhere near my level."

He ran at her, bringing his Zanbatō around to attack as she brought up a pair of shuriken to fight back. The masked ninja of the mist swung about his weapon horizontally with a bone-crushing force as he tried to take her out, connecting with nothing but air as she dodged beneath the swing. Anko immediately countered with a lunge as she attempted to drive the knives into his chest but he jumped back in time to fall out of her range. Anko's eyes shot open in fear as she stumbled forward, caught momentarily off-balance by her own movements.

Seeing this brief opening, Zabuza sliced down at her body, connecting with nothing but the ground again as she rolled to the right and just narrowly avoided his strike. Climbing back to her feet, the sensei took a step back before she brought her shuriken up again in preparation for their next clash. Zabuza acted first, lunging directly for her with his ridiculously long Zanbatō but she dodged the attack as easily as she had the first.

The two of them fought with the skill that came from years of intense training as their movements became a dance of fatality. With each step that the two took, their individual blades twisted and spun about in the murky sunlight and were mirrored by the lake next to them.

It was something truly horrifying and yet, at the same time, awe-inspiring to watch.

Now right at the water's edge, the fight was becoming even fiercer as the two jonin battled each other with merciless determination. Facing the water behind his opponent, Zabuza slashed at the sensei's side but Anko brought up the shuriken in her right hand just quick enough to stop the blade. Whirling about, she brought down the other one across the broad-edge of his sword and slammed it to the ground still in his hands. Zabuza went to his knees while Anko attempted to follow up with another quick lunge toward his now-exposed face but the mist shinobi had been anticipating this. With the simplest of ease he spun around on palms and slammed his boots squarely into her chest, knocking her back into the water behind her.

"Anko-sensei!" Hinata screamed as Anko hit the water and sank under it quickly. Naruto shared her fear as he watched the overwhelming power of the enemy shinobi in front of them: the man was too good for them to be able to handle by themselves if Anko was taken out of the picture.

Zabuza was already reacting as though he knew she wasn't out just yet. His hands flew through the symbols for the water clone technique and within a moment there stood a second shinobi identical to him. Instead of turning their attention to the three genin and their charge though, the deadly master of the mist just kept his focus geared right on the water, waiting for Anko to surface. His dark brown eyes were glimmering with a dark and horrible gleam and, from beneath his mask, Naruto could faintly see the barest lines of a sadistic grin. It was as though he were watching his opponent die already even though he knew she could easily swim out of the water; it was the kind of look that made Naruto think that the battle was about to be over.

To the blonde's relief however, their sensei broke the surface of the water a moment later, choking as she spat out the murky fluid that had rushed down her throat. She seemed to be struggling in the swampy water, fighting just to stay afloat in the liquid as she coughed up. On her face was a look of pure horror, one not aimed at her enemy but at the water itself, as though she had just then realized something was not right about the substance. "What the hell is this?!"

"You're mine," Zabuza menacingly laughed as he shoved his right hand down into the water. "Suirō no Jutsu!"

Naruto watched completely stunned as the mist ninja brought up not only his sensei but a solid sphere of water all around her, completely surrounding her on all sides. The name of the technique that Zabuza had shouted out was 'Water Prison' and that was by far the most accurate title for such a move. Anko floated helplessly and still within the center of the five-foot across sphere, looking out in total fear as she watched her three shocked genin and the elderly bridge builder behind them. Her eyes betrayed a completely surprise that she had been caught in such a utterly useful ninjutsu coupled with the fear of death that soon approached now that she had been captured. She didn't seem to be choking for oxygen in the orb but rather just floated there completely locked in a state of horrified peace.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" She screamed out of sheer terror, staring at her frozen genin. "TAKE TAZUNA AND RUN!"

Zabuza's laughter was once again filling the air with sinister echoes as he simply held her there in the space above the water. From in front of him, the clone he had conjured before sealing Anko in her liquid prison stared heartlessly at the three kids and one old man standing there. His left hand slowly crossed his chest to grab the handle of the massive Zanbatō that it, like the original mist ninja, wore upon its back. Returning the stare with his own petrified azure eyes, Naruto could feel the clutching, choking fear welling up right inside in his throat as he watched the ruthless missing-nin prepare to finish his assignment once and for all. Zabuza was just too powerful for a couple of genin and a useless old man to take on all by themselves, especially if he had defeated a full-fledge jonin so easily!

"NARUTO, RUN!" He could hear Anko's voice but his mind was already drowning in the water-clone's clutches as the clone slowly advanced towards him and the rest of Squad Nine. His sense of touch was telling him that Hinata was desperately pulling on his arm to get him to run away. He knew he should turn and take off, that he should save his own skin but his legs refused to work. He had to do something!

"Time to die, you worthless brat." The clone held its sword down to his side, preparing to cut right through the blonde to kill his target.

_**'**__**I am no worthless brat**__**.'**_

His hands moved like lightning as he knocked back the clone. Immediately the weak reproduction dissolved back into the water it had been made from, showering the four of them in a thin mist that seemed to instantly burn off his skin as steam.

Naruto's lips curled up into sadistic smile as he watched Zabuza's stunned reaction to his clone's dispersal. From within his body, the boy could feel all the extra excesses of chakra just pulsating like perfectly destructive waves that washed over him again and again and again. He had given again and called upon that side of himself that wanted so desperately wanted to taste the sunlight as much as possible; he had forced his body to release a little of the Kyuubi that he was and now the fear that had gripped him so thoroughly was just a thing of the past. Naruto knew he was strong enough now, strong enough to fight back. And as he stared down the mist shinobi with his slowly reddening irises, his mind thought up exactly how he wanted to.

_**"Kaname, Hinata." **_Naruto smirked inwardly as he heard himself talk. His own voice sounded so ominous now that he was being changed by the chakra within him. He could feel the fangs that had always rested within his upper jaw growing just slightly as he stared ahead with a smirk, feeling all the more in touch with the side of himself he was just beginning to meet.

"We should leave, my friend. You heard Anko-sensei!" Kaname pleaded from behind him. Naruto refused to turn and face either of his teammates and show them the beast he was so willingly becoming. Unless they were completely utterly stupid, he knew that they must have known something was happening with him considering all that had taken place in the last two days since they left Konoha. Yet even still, he did not feel like trying to explain what he was to them when he did not understand it fully himself. So, for the moment that meant just enjoying the feeling that coursed through him then without losing control again. "If we stay here, we will only get ourselves and Tazuna killed by that monster. He is too powerful for just the three of us to take on, especially with Anko-sensei incapacitated as she is. I am sorry, my comrade, but we need to get out of here."

_**"Listen to me."**_ Naruto spoke in a near whisper to his two teammates, still staring at the speechless Zabuza that stood maybe twenty feet in front of him at the edge of the lake. _**"In just a moment, I'm going to attack him."**_

"Naruto, no! It's suicide!" Hinata gripped his hand tighter once again as she pulled at his arm to try and shake him from his chosen course of action. By just barely focusing on her, Naruto could hear the desperation in her voice and smell the terror-induced cold sweat that was clinging to her body. He could almost taste her emotions on the wind, could see the look of her face as she spoke her words to dissuade him without even turning to look at her. Thanks his Kyuubi side, his senses whenever he gave in to what he was were becoming like that of a true animal and, for him, it was an awe-inspiring feeling. He knew her better than she knew herself just by the chemicals he could smell from her at that moment. He knew who she was.

Now with all the information his senses was receiving, he couldn't help but smile a little at the fact that she was truly that worried about him. "I-if you go in there and try to fight him, you'll… you'll get yourself killed! Anko-sensei told us to go so we need to go, now."

_**"Just listen to me for a moment, Hinata." **_He whispered as he still refused to face her, returning her fierce grip with a gentle hold as he tried to comfort her. Naruto knew what he was doing; the Kyuubi knew what he was doing. Calming himself, he let his voice drift back to its normal pitch and tenor while he focused solely on keeping his chakra exactly at that level of strength he needed. "I am going to attack him using my shadow clones. When I do, immediately take out three shuriken and get ready to throw them but don't let him see. He will probably knock me back as I attack but when he does, I want you to throw those three shuriken each at the different kill points up and down his body. Do you understand me?"

He turned his head back so very slightly to watch Hinata's face out of the corner of his blood-red eyes. Looking back at his irises she did not seem the slightest bit surprised by the almost feral appearance of his slitted pupils but rather her face betrayed a sense of understanding at what he was becoming. The horrified gaze she was shooting him from behind a pair of Byakugan-enhanced gray pools was not aimed at him but rather at Zabuza, a fear she held for his life instead of a fear of him. Sensing this, Naruto couldn't help but turn and show her a little more of him; she was proving as loyal as a friend as Kiba so she deserved some measure of trust from him.

"Ready?" He asked, watching her still.

"Naruto, we really should not do th–"Kaname began before Hinata raised her free hand to silence him.

Knowing that the blonde would not and could not be talked into taking a... weak way out of this situation, she had no choice but to just accept his judgment and give it her all. Her mind was reeling as the apprehension that still gripped her tried to fill her head with a thousand different what-ifs regarding the young shinobi's potential fate but she just quieted herself. _'He's stronger than that.' _Steeling her own nerves, she gave Naruto a small nod before releasing his hand finally.

"Then here I go."Naruto's eyes shot back to Zabuza and locked in on the mist shinobi. 

"So you actually think you can fight on my level?" Zabuza spoke up finally, watching Naruto as he prepared to enact his plan. The mist-nin was not stupid, he knew they had something planned but he just didn't know what. However, they were nothing but a couple of useless genin brats so even with his left arm held in place to keep their instructor from fighting, he had no doubt that he could handle them with relative ease.

With his hands he quickly went through the symbols of ram, snake, and tiger while he pulled up as much of the free-flowing chakra he could from every part of his body. He knew this was a stupid move but if everything worked out like he planned it, then they would at least have a one in a million shot at taking Zabuza down.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"The air around them was suddenly full of a brief cloud of thin white smoke, concealing for just the slightest moment the most crucial part of his whole plan. 

When the smoke cleared, there now stood a good thirty identical clones, each one of them staring down their jonin-level opponent with the utmost focus and dedication to the quick but all-important battle that was about to take place.

"As one!" The chorus of voices shouted as they rushed at Zabuza. In front of them, their enemy just stood tall, a sinister grin plastered on the face beneath his mask as he watched the amateurish maneuver, not having taken any notice the Kaname and Hinata as they rapidly each drew their shuriken and readied them in between their fingers. His gaze was solely focused on the thirty orange and black-clad clones that ran at him with white-knuckled fists. Reaching back, he calmly undid the strap that bound his Zanbatō on his back and gripped its handle tightly, already feeling the splatter of fresh genin blood as it fell on him like rain.

He swung wildly in front of him as they reached him, a wave of white smoke shooting past him as he took out a good eight of them in just one simple swing. Zabuza could feel more than a few of them trying to grip his free arm and legs as the final line dove down from the air in an effort to knock him down at least once. Their strength, however, was nothing compared to his.

Naruto covered his chest and face with his forearms as the massive blade swung back around, feeling nothing but supreme pain as it slammed down all the way to the bone through his thin jacket. The three clones around him disappeared immediately while the force of the blade began to drive him back; he knew he had to focus and do what he came to do. He had one shot at this before the blade knocked him back to his teammates. As the blade dug deeper and deeper into the bleeding flesh of his arms, he forced all of his weight to swing with it and kicked his right foot out at Zabuza's free arm. With all the chakra he could muster he slammed his right foot squarely into the mist demon's wrist. A darkly infectious smirk rose to his cheeks as he heard the satisfying crunch of bone that he had sought after.

Zabuza howled in exquisite agony and let go of the sword that still remained lodged in Naruto's profusely bleeding arms.

Naruto forced the pain from his mind, focusing all he could on the mission. The blade flew with its victim back to the feet of his two Squad Nine mates, landing with a resounding clang against the dirt as Naruto immediately shot his attention back at his Squad. "NOW!"

Hinata and Kaname didn't even look down at him as they let their six knives fly. Each one of them was aimed at one of the kill zones that they had been taught back in the Academy, bringing with them Zabuza's defeat. They flew at their victim with pinpoint precision, sailing through the air at the now unguarded shinobi as he tried to bring up his broken right arm to defend himself. Naruto smiled as he watched Zabuza's useless motion; he had sent enough force through his foot to shatter his wrist and forearm as well as at least break his upper arm. So with his arm broken and his blade gone from his grasp, the mist shinobi would have no other choice but to use his left arm.

Zabuza's eyes went wide in horror. Time seemed to slow down as he drew his left arm back from the sphere that Anko remained contained in.

Naruto, Kaname, and Hinata all watched as the mist shinobi lifted it just barely quick enough to cover the spots that they had attacked, six perfect throws lodging themselves into Zabuza's arm and legs while he defended himself. Zabuza blocked them as quickly as he could before trying to turn back to Anko to keep her contained. Beside him, the water was beginning to fall away and in a split second she would be free. He had to stop her!

The sensei's foot slammed squarely into the back of his head just as he turned his eyes back to her.

"Now, you're mine." Anko spoke mercilessly as he slammed down to the ground.

* * *

Author's Note: Chapter turned out longer than I had anticipated this time but, on the bright side, it did allow me time to get a good picture of what I want to do with the rest of the Land of Waves arc. Also, I went ahead and updated the prologue with a little bit of what may become a teaser of later on in the story. Enjoy it. Anyways, I'm off finally so enjoy the chapter and drop a review with your thoughts. Peace.


	8. Chapter 7: Within the Mist, Part II

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to update the story. Due to a some monumental #!$ up on my computer's end, what was the original draft of Chapter 7 was deleted some time on Monday the 3rd and now I have had to rewrite the first seven or so pages of this chapter. If you can't tell via whatever mental picture you have of me at this moment, the aspirin I'm taking for the headache that this is causing me is akin in strength to a horse tranquilizer. Now before I rewrite all this, just know that I'm going to inevitably skip past the training montage featuring Team Nine just for the sheer fact there's no real need for it this time around as Naruto isn't a part of Sasuke's team. I think everyone can just imagine him climbing trees without my help. And without it being in there, I can do some actual character development. That being said, here's the chapter.

"I…" indicates speech.

_"I…" _indicates inner thought.

_**"I…" **_indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

(I) indicates timeskip.

* * *

Chapter 7: Within the Mist, Part II

* * *

"Now, you're mine." Anko spat as her foot slammed into the back of Zabuza's skull, sending him sprawling against the dirt.

He climbed to his feet quickly, using what strength hadn't already been drained from him thanks to Naruto's punishing kick to his wrist and Hinata and Kaname's various shuriken wounds to push his thinly toned form back up from the dust. The front of his facemask was wet with the sickly metallic scent of blood pouring from it but he seemed too focused on his newly freed opponent to care. Naruto could almost feel the anger emanating from him as his bloodshot eyes locked in on Anko's gracefully lethal form. He had intended to kill the genin before he had to face her but now he had to fight another jonin that had had the last five minutes to rest while _he _had gotten his right arm broken to the wrist and his left arm and legs peppered with shuriken. To make matters worse for the swordsman, Naruto had managed to pull his blade free when he broke his wrist so he was without his main weapon.

"You…" Zabuza was breathing heavily, a sign that exhaustion was already beginning to set in. Even though he was one of the Seven, it had been a long time before he had been in such a dire fight as this. "You think this changes anything?! I'm gonna slaughter all of you!"

"With what? As far as I can see, your weapon is gone and I think it might be more than a little difficult to perform jutsu with your right wrist and arm as it is." Anko replied calmly, taking a step off of the water's surface to put her feet back on fully solid land instead of the treacherous waters of the lake. Everything about her movements was completely alert, completely focused on the horrible swordsman that nearly shuddered in front of her near the forest edge. Even though she was still young compared to some of the older and comparably wiser shinobi of Konohagakure, she had learned a prowess in battle that was almost unmatched by any other kunoichi her age. All the time she had spent under her _first_ master had taught her to watch her enemy with a surgeon's eyes, carefully and meticulously observing every nuance of the enemy's pose and fighting style until she could see exactly what was going on inside of them. And as she watched Zabuza, from behind a pair of icy hazel eyes she could see that it would not be very long before even a warrior like him was forced to notice the injuries he had sustained. Thus, she let a mischievous and dark grin rise on her cheeks as she taunted him. "You've been… disarmed."

"You honestly think you stand a chance, you annoying little Leaf bitch!" He spat, forcing his body to stand up completely straight as he glared at her. "You can't beat me no matter how badly I've been injured! I'm Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist! SO WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

Anko's response was as swift as it was brutal. Her movements as fast as lightning, she leapt at Zabuza and brought her foot once again to his head, slamming it against his thick skull with all the force she could muster. He soared through the air like a perfectly tossed kunai, his body twisting and turning like a top from the sheer strength of her completely devastating blow. Naruto could not help but shudder as his over-acting sense of hearing picked up the resounding thud that came from Zabuza's back and head as he crashed into a nearby tree like a ragdoll. Team Nine's drill sergeant of a sensei had really done one hell of a number on his spine and skull with her punishing punt.

"Damn right, Anko-sensei!" Kaname cheered from behind Naruto and Hinata.

Still on the ground with his arms bleeding from the massive cut across them, Naruto couldn't help but smirk at his teammate's straightforward remark. Hinata was leaning over him, wrapping up each of them in makeshift bandages she had made by tearing the sleeves off of her coat. He could tell she was avoiding looking him in the eye, trying to keep from freaking out at how deeply he had been slashed. He felt bad that she had to rip up her favorite jacket just to stop him from bleeding out more than he already had, especially when he knew that he would probably have healed after a good night's sleep judging by how he didn't even have a scar after what Mizuki had done to him.

"It's okay, Hinata." Naruto spoke calmly, pushing himself so he was sitting up. His body was wracked in steady shockwaves of agony that pulsated outward from his arms but he forced himself to ignore the pain for the time being. "You don't need to do it anymore."

Hinata finally raised her eyes to meet his. Naruto couldn't help but be taken back by what he saw; her skin had faded from its already pale color to something akin to a ghost now while her gray pupil-free orbs were still locked in the kekkai genkai that she commanded. As she brought them up to gaze squarely at his azure-colored irises, it felt so incredibly awkward to the blonde-headed boy, like she could see past the flesh that covered his face and peer right beneath the surface to the fanged snout of the Nine-Tailed Fox. Yet, even so, the look in her eyes was not fear _of _him but fear _for _him.

"But…" She murmured, once again looking down at his arms. Once again her petite little hands moved toward the bandages she had wrapped around his forearms. For the most part, they were bandaged up but he had already stained the faded gray cloth from her coat a deep shade of red. On a normal person, she would have already had to change the wrapping to stop the bleeding. "T-the chakra in your body is flowing out in… incredible amounts from the w-wound and–"

"Trust me, I'll be fine." He just flashed a smile, putting his free hand over hers as to try and reassure her that there was nothing to worry about. After a moment, she hesitantly nodded.

"…Okay." She muttered.

Satisfied that his reassurance would suffice until he had the time and privacy to tell her a little about himself regarding _what_ he was and what he could do, Naruto just averted his gaze back toward where Zabuza was propped up against the tree Anko had slammed him into.

Despite the fact he idolized the Mist swordsman back when he was a kid, he had to admit that a part of him was at least somewhat satisfied to see Zabuza get back what he had dished out to Anko and himself. Maybe it was his heritage or maybe it was just his own sense of revenge but it made him… happy to see the jonin planted against the trunk of the tree. Staring at the back of Anko's head he just smiled and spoke up. "Kick his ass, sensei."

The jonin instructor did not pay attention to anything that her rookies said; she was completely focused on ending this once and for all. Not even turning to face her genin, Anko confidently strode over to where Zabuza was slumped against the tree's thick and knotty trunk. With a flick of her right wrist she drew a single kunai down to her outstretched hand from the sling she had wrapped around the inner part of her forearm. She knew she had to finish this now; even with Zabuza being as heavily injured as he was, he was still a potentially lethal force to be reckoned with. No one earned the sort of reputation he had in a ninja black book without being someone who rightfully deserved to be feared. He could and would kill her if she did not kill him first; that much was certain. Thus, she steadied the cold steel of the kunai in her hand and prepared to let his blood wash over the forest floor.

"Goodbye, Zabuza." She said coolly.

Zabuza's eyes immediately shot open and dilated as a pair of steel senbon needles tore through his neck, driving right through the skin and muscle like it was wet tissue. The breath in his lungs was instantly forced from his body and his heart stopped beating like someone had just cut off all the neurological impulses that gave it power.

"I am sorry, but I will have to ask you to step away from that body." A frigid and yet still pure-sounding female voice behind her accompanied the pair of lethal needles that had caught her completely by surprise. Anko's hazel irises quickly darted from where Zabuza's body now sat wholly still to the source of the voice, caught off-guard by the sight she was welcomed with. Standing on a single barren tree behind Tazuna and her genin was what she could tell was a young shinobi, one from Kirigakure no Sato like the dearly departed laying behind the young instructor. The assassin had on a white porcelain mask with the Mist village symbol engraved into the forehead of it coupled with a flowing kimono that carefully hid her body's curves, which were just beginning to gain definition. In each hand she held three of the same senbon needles that had torn through Zabuza's neck, each one carefully held between her fingers like a set of beastly claws. "It is the property of Village Hidden in the Mist."

"And you are?" Anko asked carefully, tightening her grip on the kunai in her hand. Just what in the hell was a village assassin doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

"I…" The young shinobi began as she leapt down and landed so that she stood a few feet in front of Team Nine between them and their jonin. "I am a hunter ninja for Kirigakure no Sato. I was given an assignment a few months ago to capture and terminate Zabuza Momochi given his current status as a missing-nin of the village."

"And you just _now_ found him?" Anko replied suspiciously, taking notice of every little reaction the girl made as she knelt down in front of Zabuza's now-limp body. Not taking her eyes from the young assassin, she put her index and middle finger to the side of the swordsman's throat and felt out his vein, carefully waiting for any sign of a pulse. She figured that Kiri probably did have a tracker out after Zabuza considering the reputation and dossier that accompanied him within the black book, but it was too convenient that she would show up right as the shinobi was going to die and finish him off personally. Yet at least a little of her fears were put to rest as there was no feeling of a steady rhythm inside of his veins. He was dead.

"Actually, no. I have been tracking his movements for some time throughout this area." The shinobi replied as she walked over and knelt directly over Zabuza. Anko had taken a few steps back towards her genin but still refused to take her eyes from the graceful assassin as she made her way back to where Naruto and Hinata were on the ground. Without the slightest bit of effort, the masked hunter reached down to pick up Zabuza's body and slung it over her shoulder like a traveling pack before she stood up again. "I discovered his location earlier this month after hearing some information about his… employment thanks to a few of the covert operatives of the Mist. When I found him, he was well-guarded and still dangerous enough that I had to wait until he was alone before I could complete my mission. This morning turned out to be the perfect opportunity."

"So you let us do your dirty work and then came in to reap the benefits." Anko responded coldly, staring down the young assassin with a killer's gaze.

"Yes. As I secretly tailed him earlier today, I could tell he was setting a trap for someone so I let him spring the trap in order to let him gain some measure of over-confidence. Though I could not guess how strong you and your group would be, once I saw you were all ninja, I knew at the very least that it would wear him down somewhat and make my job a little easier. After all, a good shinobi does not take on anyone like him without making sure one has a good enough strategy."

"…Fine." Anko snapped back. "He's yours then… but don't let me see you around here again; you really wouldn't like the consequences if I do."

Naruto could not help but stare back and forth between the two of them; even though the assassin was perfectly calm and collected there was just a sense of killer intent that seemed to emanate from her like a cold winter breeze. His sensei, meanwhile, was acting with a sense of caution and carefulness despite the fiery fatal words she spat out. It was so… weird because they were both acting out in complete opposite of the feelings that he was picking up from them.

"Very well." The masked shinobi finished, bowing slightly despite the heavy weight that was slung over her back. She began to walk over to them, having withdrawn the senbon needles she was wielding back into their sling on her wrist. There was a natural coldness about her, a pervading sense of iciness that just seemed to spread out from her with every step she took. It… unnerved Naruto as he picked up on it because, quite frankly, it was truly something he had never felt from anybody ever before. Simply put, it was as though she knew she could kill them all instantly and could do so without even batting an eye but she chose not to because she did not care to. Truly it was a weird sensation for him to feel. "I will, however, require his blade. The village will not tolerate it if that falls into a foreign sword-smith's hands."

"Take it." For the first time since she had been released from the sphere of water, Anko finally turned to face her genin. To Naruto, her gaze betrayed a sense of caution and worry it moved from him and his bandaged arms first then to Hinata, who was looking up at her with a blank shy look, and finally to Kaname who still had his kunai drawn and was gripping them fiercely as he remained in front of Tazuna. She was undoubted apprehensive about something but he thought it was best not to bother her about at the moment so he just remained silent.

"Naruto, Hinata, Kaname; we're leaving now. We're finishing the mission." Anko finished calmly as she holstered the shuriken in her hand. As one, the three rookie genin nodded, all of them smart enough not to ask questions of their instructor. "You three will take point as we walk; Tazuna, I'd like you to join me at the back of the group. Now, let's get out of here."

(I)

_Tazuna's __House_

_Two Hours Later._

"T…That's i-impossible!"

Hinata stared at the bare, exposed flesh beneath his bandages in complete shock. Sitting on the bathroom counter beside her was an untouched suture kit and a full set of fresh and unused bandages she had out to patch him up legitimately instead of with the blood-stained shirtsleeves that had been wrapped around his arms until a moment ago. Her nervously quivering hands were still holding the suture needle though her mind had now completely blanked on just what she should do with it. Yet despite the look of utter amazement she knew was probably plastered on her face, Naruto did not seem the least bit surprised at the sight that was before his eyes at that moment. His face was calm and totally unfazed… The sight of his arms having completely healed in the two hours between when they left Zabuza to the care of his assassin to now did nothing to affect his personality.

She was utterly speechless as her sight drifted from his arms, which showed no sign of having ever even been scratched, to his expressionless blue eyes. Naruto, meanwhile, just let his gaze soften to a look of understanding after a moment.

"There's… something I think I can tell you." He began slowly in a serious tenor that seemed so out of place coming from his young preteen body as he carefully judged each and every word he would speak in his mind first. There was a part of him, probably the only really human part of him, a part that was scared like a kid should be about just how she was going to take the information he was willingly parting with. Naruto knew that there were people out there that would probably hate him or even want to kill him if they knew _what_ he was so some survivalist side of himself didn't want to tell her his secret. But… deep down he just felt like screaming it out… and maybe telling Hinata was his way of doing so.

"W-w-what?" Her eyes were still darting back and forth from where his wound had been to where his eyes were locked. He had never really noticed much about Hinata before, she had always been so closed off and distant in class but Naruto was beginning to see it as just simple shyness since he had never really taken the time to try and get to know her while he was always hanging out with Kiba in the Academy.

Without making a sound he breathed in deeply as he poured over how to begin. From all around him a hundred different scents flooded his enhanced nostrils from the salty breeze that was blowing off of the ocean water just outside and the heady odor of his own caked-on blood even to the faded aroma of fresh lilac from a rich perfume mixed by fear with cold sweat, which he took be coming from her. Each one of them gave him a myriad of little bits of… sensory news about all that was around him but what he was most focused on at that moment was her and the words he wanted to speak so he just pushed every tiny bit of unnecessary information from his mind and just relaxed. "I… I know what you've seen in the last week since we became part of the same team. To you, something has probably seemed really off; like I haven't been the same person since I graduated from the Academy but suddenly became more serious and quiet. If I were you, I know I'd probably be wondering about the test against Anko-sensei, about the Demon Brothers… and now this…"

"I…" She started and stopped again, her hands moving in front of her chin like she was curling up while asleep. "I f-figured you w-were j-j-just worried about becoming a g-genin like everyone else."

"Heh, if only," He replied almost bitterly, thinking again about all that had happened and really rocked his life in the last week or so. Slowly raising his azure pupils up, Naruto met her gray gaze with a nervous yet somehow peaceful one of his own. "Tell me something… Do I look different?"

"W-what?" She stammered, dumbfounded by such an offbeat question.

"… Your Byakugan… it sees what a normal person can't see. You see something no one else can see; your clan can see through a person and look at the chakra flow throughout their body… Does mine look any different?"

Hinata was at a loss of how to respond to his question. Like he said, over the last week she had looked to him every time something or someone threatened them and, each time, she had silently stood behind him only to see something that completely astounded her. The chakra in his body was a deep shade of crimson, like the color of fresh blood instead of one of the thousand different shades of blue that had always flooded her eyes. It had an almost naturally unnatural ebb and flow to it akin to the waves and ripples across the surface of the sea, a continual force that emanated outward from him to beyond even his physical body; everyone else just looked a hundred connected tiny rivers inside whereas he was an immeasurable ocean. Simply put, his chakra was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was something different… something truly unique.

"…Y-yes; it's… n-nothing like anyone else I've…" She trailed off, watching his young face drop into a look of sadness and depression as he stared down at his feet. After a moment, Naruto raised his gaze back up to meet hers, a kind of forced shy and embarrassed smile badly plastered on his face like a poorly constructed kabuki mask. His teeth were ground together in the charade-grin, giving her a clear view of the overgrown fangs on the sides of his mouth.

"Tell me then, how is it different from everyone else's?" He asked after a moment, folding his arms over his chest.

She hesitated for a second before she continued, beginning to wonder more and more about just what it was he wanted to tell her if he was asking a question like this. Hinata had always been shy and silent in front of Naruto back in the Academy and it had only been a week since they had been put on the same team but she was already starting to be more vocal towards him. Even so, considering her feelings for him she really didn't know what she could say or just how she could say it to tell him what it was she saw when she looked at his body's chakra. She didn't want to make him feel alienated and definitely didn't want to risk whatever friendship she might have had with him besides being his teammate.

"It's okay... Just tell me what you see." Naruto's fake grin had faded to something softer, something more human as he spoke those words.

Breathing in deeply, she just stared directly at him and activated her kekkai genkai.

"In… In every person I've ever seen with my Byakugan, the chakra within them always looks blue. Whether it was someone else in the Academy all the way to the Hokage himself, everyone always has a shade of blue that looks like a collection of streams and rivers spread throughout their bodies." She said, looking directly into his body. Even more than the color of his chakra, what really amazed her as she stared at his life's energies was that, even though she could see the holes where it poured from his body, there was no starting, ending, or boundaries inside him. It flowed freely. "Your chakra is… It's like nothing I've ever really seen. It's… red. But not simply red, it's the deepest shade of rose red I've ever seen, like a pool of blood that flows throughout every part of your body. E-even the flow of it is different; it's not contained by the normal chakra tubes that everyone else has, it just permeates and flows throughout each and every part of your body."

"… Well I guess I really shouldn't be surprised." Naruto spoke up after a moment with a forced chuckle as she deactivated her true sight.

"Why?" Hinata asked simply.

He went silent again, turning away from her for a second as he pushed the suture kit out of the way and pushed himself up on to the counter so he could sit down.

"Do you remember all we learned back in the Academy about the night that the Kyuubi attacked twelve years ago?" He asked as he picked up a roll of bandages and began to wrap his forearms even though they were already healed. Even though he was going to tell her what he was, he didn't feel like having this conversation again with Kaname and especially not with Tazuna or his family. There was no need for everyone to know so he had to make it look like she really had changed his bandages.

"O-of course," She replied calmly, leaning back against the wall across from him shyly.

"Do you know why it attacked?"

"Well Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei always said that it became enraged and just attacked without any real provocation before the Yondaime stopped it." She answered, wondering just why he was interested in such a topic.

"But do you know _why_ it attacked?"

"No one knows why it attacked. It just did."

"No." He simply said, surprising himself with just how direct his voice sounded as he leaned forward to look her directly in her clear gray eyes. Naruto couldn't tell if it was his demon-side or not that wanted to defend his biological mother's actions but it didn't really matter because, even if he didn't mean to defend the Nine-Tails, the story he was going to tell her still would. So resigning himself to tell her everything, he just breathed in deeply and began with the same story that Jiraiya had told him while his mom listened after he came back to Konoha. "A day before the Kyuubi attacked, the Yondaime discovered a baby crawling around the ground near the hot-springs on the Hokage Residence. He checked throughout the village for any news of a missing infant but no one had placed any reports with the police or through ANBU about their children going missing so he decided to watch over the baby himself.

"The next night, the Kyuubi attacked with such a fierce fury that it left more than a hundred of the ninja of Konohagakure no Sato in their graves." He spoke calmly, still staring directly into her eyes he fought back the little ounce of sadness that began to well up in him about all this. "In order to save the village, the Yondaime Hokage himself sacrificed his own life to kill the demon but not before placing a seal on the baby he had found."

"Why would he place a seal on the baby?" Hinata asked, completely focused in on the story as he talked. She had read the same history books as everyone else in the Academy but not once had she ever heard anything like what he was saying from anyone. It was something entirely new but entirely more interesting.

"…Because he did not want the baby to become like its mother." Naruto replied simply, watching her eyes as her mind tried to process what he had just said. "The Yondaime Hokage knew that if he did not seal up the child, then without its mother there was a chance that the child would probably lose control or end up dying on its own."

"But… who was the baby's mother then?"

"_She _was." He answered with a semi-sad smile. "The baby that had wandered into the village was the cub of the Kyuubi no Yoko in a human form, something the Yondaime realized before he stopped the Kyuubi at the cost of his own life."

"So you're t-telling me that…"

"Yep. The Kyuubi attack on Konohagakure no Sato was not the result of some monster's infinite rage or a random coincidence like everyone in the village thinks. She attacked the village and simply destroyed every ninja that got in her way because her baby boy was there and she desperately wanted him back, just like any other mother in her position would. She was just trying to save her infant from what she thought was a dangerous situation. And… in doing so, the Kyuubi was killed."

"Then what happened to her baby?" Hinata asked, almost enthralled by all that she was being told.

"Well, before the Yondaime's death he ordered an ANBU commander to take it to the woman that he loved, who lived in Kirigakure no Sato. Because such a mission can only be carried out with the approval of the Hokage, the commander told the Sandaime all that had happened when the old man was given back the position. The Sandaime agreed with his successor's judgment and had one of his ex-students who had taught the Yondaime take the child to the woman in Kiri. In the end, she ended up taking the infant as her son and raised him as her own while the Sandaime's ex-pupil became his foster grandfather."

Naruto went silent again as he watched the cogs in her mind turn as she poured over everything that he had just told her. Everyone already knew he had come from Kiri because of his open goal of becoming the next Mizukage and he had always known people to become amazed whenever he said that Jiraiya was his grandfather. As he climbed back down from the counter so he could stand up straight, he knew she would come to the conclusion he had been leading her to since he first opened his mouth. She was a smart girl after all; her grades in the Academy had always been good even if she wasn't the same level of a fighter as Kiba or him. So it would only be a moment before she figured out just what he was trying to tell her.

After a moment, her eyes shot open. _'And there it is.'_

"N-naruto, you're…" Her hand moved to her mouth as she gasped. His sense of smell still working overtime, Naruto said a silent prayer when he felt that gasp was not accompanied by fear but simple surprise. "Are you…?!"

"The son of the Nine-Tailed demon fox; yeah," Naruto replied with an almost embarrassed little grin as he pushed back the single strand of red hair from his face. "She was my birth mother."

The small bathroom went still and quiet as he spoke these five simple words, leaving behind such an uncomfortable silence in the wake of his story. Naruto knew there was one of three ways she would probably take what he had just said: just believe him and accept him, think he was lying to her even though lies were not really his style, or finally she could believe him and hate him or fear him for it. Of all three of the choices he had unconsciously laid out in front of her, he really didn't want to be afraid of him because he was already more than afraid of what he was. So as he waited for her response to what he had just said, he couldn't help but be more than a little apprehensive at how she would react.

"T-that's…" Hinata began, her gray eyes going clear as she once again met his gaze. Inside, his heart was beating frantically and he was beginning to call himself a moron for telling her. Yet he wanted to let her finish her statement first so he didn't say anything. "That's… T-that's incredible! You mean you're really the c-child of the Nine-Tails?"

"That's what Jiraiya and my mom told me." Over the next five minutes, he told her the rest of the story about what had happened to him over the last week, from the day they had all graduated from the Academy down to even his side of what happened just earlier that morning with Zabuza. She asked a few questions but they were all what a normal person would ask in such a situation so he was more than willing to answer what she wanted to know. The entire time he talked, Naruto continued to wrap his arms back up in the white linen bandages to keep the appearance that he was still injured.

"So now you know the whole story." Naruto said calmly as he finished wrapping his arms. Hinata simply nodded without saying much but she had a small, happy grin on her face that told him that she wasn't afraid of him at all. The signals he was tasting on the air around her smelled of contentment and… and simple understand instead of any nervousness or fear. "I just have to ask you not to talk about this to anyone else. I don't think anybody else needs to know."

"O-oh, of course!" She replied, her gray eyes lighting up as she nodded. "T-t-thank you for telling me, Naruto."

He had to stop from chuckling as she bowed politely in front of him. Instead, he just reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, feeling her pulse immediately jump beneath his fingers as he did so. Hinata's eyes shot open and her whole body seemed to shudder beneath his hand as she stood up straight to meet his gaze. Naruto had to admit that telling her had given him some simple amount of joy and peace after the one continual headache that the last week had been ever since he graduated. Thus, instead of looking sad or pensive like he had when he told her what he was, his face softened to a relaxed and peaceful smile. To him at least, it was looking like the metaphorical shit storm he had been standing in was finally starting to subside.

"…Naruto?" Hinata asked, unsure of how to react.

From the other side of the bathroom door came a swift, loud knock that immediately interrupted the little moment of emotional downtime that the young kitsune was having with the one person on Team Nine he felt he could really trust, Anko-sensei included. Naruto could tell by the scent that now flooded his over-worked smell receptors that Kaname stood on the other side of the thick wooden door. Even though he didn't think that his Suna-born squad member was the kind of person to pry on conversations behind closed doors that didn't involve him, it still didn't stop the fox boy from stopping and wondering how loud he might have been talking just in case.

"Yeah?" Naruto replied a second later.

"Anko-sensei said that she needs to urgently speak with all of us, my friend. If Hinata is finished changing your bandages, she asked that you two would come out here for what I can only assume is a discussion regarding our mission." Ever since Naruto had been placed on Team Nine, Kaname's voice had continuously put him on edge for the last week. Despite his young age, the genin raised in Sunagakure had a mischievous and almost manipulative quality to his voice that was far beyond his years, much like that of a back alley arms dealer or the owner of a brothel. It really made Naruto wonder if it wasn't just an act or if he actually sounded like that all the time, even at home.

"Okay. We're about done here so tell Anko-sensei we'll be out in a second." He finished, turning his azure blue eyes back to Hinata while he waited to hear Kaname's footsteps leave the space in front of the door. "I guess we should go see what she wants."

"Naruto, are you o-okay?" Hinata asked, meeting his gaze fully.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be fine." He replied, flashing her the most confident smile he could muster. As he stood there, a part of him just wanted to reach out and hug her and thank her for listening to what he had to say, to thank her for not seeing him as some kind of monster. However, all he could really muster now without feeling anymore awkward than he already did was the goofy smile he had plastered on his face coupled with a genuine warmness inside his heart. So, instead of hugging her he just extended his hand. "Thanks for listening."

She didn't say a word but simply took the outstretched palm in front her.

(I)

"Hinata, Kaname, Naruto; I know what's probably going through your minds right now. Primarily the big question of when are we going back to Konoha, correct?" Anko's voice was stern, showing no sign of the sarcasm and somewhat good nature she had had over the last three days save the two fights she'd been in. Each one of them could see this as clear as day so they knew it would not be wise to act inappropriately in front of the serious sensei at the moment. As one, each of the three genin answered her straight-forward question with a simple unified nod and stayed silent. "As I thought. Well as such, I'm going to share with you what I shared with Tazuna while we finished the journey to the village because it pertains to our stay here and our mission more than I'd like. When we left the lake that Zabuza Momochi attacked us all at, we left his body there with a shinobi that had been supposedly sent by Kirigakure no Sato. However… I think we've been had."

Naruto nearly choked down a gulp when she spoke those words, already seeing where exactly she was heading.

"I think the hunter shinobi we saw was not a Kiri assassin but rather most likely one of Zabuza's associates or another one of the ninja under the employ of Gato."

"But if that were true, then it would mean that…" Kaname trailed off, a look of horror slowly covering his face.

"Yes, Kaname; if my theory is correct then Zabuza is most likely still alive and the assassin that 'killed' him was actually in fact his rescuer. Now, I know you three were probably wanting to get back to the village and be done with this mission already but if Zabuza is still out there already, then we have no choice to stay and continue guarding Tazuna with our very lives. Now, because of this I spoke to Tazuna to find out how much longer it will take on the bridge before his job is finished and the damn thing is open. According to the report he gave me regarding its progress, it'll be done about a week from now." The three genin immediately tuned in to what she was saying by the simple words she chose, figuring out what she was about to tell them before she burst it out. Naruto could feel the headache he had earlier before talking to Hinata already rising back to the surface of his mind as he thought about how long they would be here now. Quite frankly, he wanted to pull a page out of Shikamaru's book and start griping about how troublesome this whole mission was.

"So I take it we're staying." Naruto replied, finally speaking up for the Team Nine genin.

"Exactly. Over the next week while we wait for the bridge to be completed, I'm going to see if I can't improve you all through some good training. If Zabuza is still around and has accomplices, then I want you all to be as best prepared as possible." Anko folded her hands back over her head, reclining slightly in the chair she was sitting in. "Kaname, your specialty is genjutsu so I'm going to have you practice your taijutsu so you're not completely worthless in battle. Hinata, your taijutsu is good but you need to learn to focus your chakra so you can better use your clan's style. Finally that brings me to you, Naruto. To put it simply, your chakra control sucks ass so, along with Hinata, you are going to be learning to climb trees."

He really hated exactly how straight-forward his sensei was at times.

"Now, let's go. It's time to get to work." She finished, the same sadistic smile she had had when she first met and attacked them rising to her cheeks like an ominous cloud in the clear blue sky.

(I)

_Tazuna's House_

_7__ days later, 11:45 pm_

Naruto cursed his luck for being put on any squad that had Anko Mitarashi as its leader. As far as he was concerned, the sociopathic little psycho bitch was about as qualified to be a teacher to a pack of kids as a serial rapist and murderer with a history of mental instability. For the last six days and nights, she had worked Kaname, Hinata, and his' bodies nearly to their breaking point and then let them recuperate over a night of sleep only to wake up ridiculously early the next morning and get their asses handed to them again by her at least once before continuing their training. The only positive thing he could possibly say about her style of training is that it was having results. Because she fought them as a group each morning before they began whatever work out she had cooked up, Kaname was fighting like he actually knew a little bit of what he was doing.

Meanwhile, he had not shared the real results of his own little round of training yet with anyone, Hinata included. Climbing up the trees by focusing his chakra was forcing him to… unlock a little bit of his kitsune energies each time he went further than his body would allow. It was teaching him to use what he had and to be a little more conservative in its use. Simply put, he was learning control. Which, given the possible what-ifs that their current situation incurred, was not really all that bad of a thing to have. If he was going to be using more and more of his other side's power if and when they got attacked again by Zabuza , he at least wanted to know how to.

"Na-Naruto?" Called a shy feminine whisper from the doorway of the room he and Kaname were sharing though the Sand kid was already sound asleep on his futon. He had known she was coming to see him since she had gotten up, having smelled the scent of the lilac moving through the wind with her.

He was sitting in front of the open rice-paper door while he sat on the matted flooring, watching the clear full moon as it shined down superbly shimmering silver rays of light that danced across the slowly moving waves of the ocean beneath him. Instead of turning away from such a… a mesmerizing sight, he did not say a word to break the hypnotic spell the light held over him but rather just extended out his left hand to invite her over to him. Her bare footsteps echoed softly against the floor as she crossed the room and took his hand before sitting down beside him.

"Do you what I like best about watching the sky during the night?" He said warmly, still not turning his eyes away from the clear night sky as he felt her grip tighten around his hand. Naruto had to admit that, somewhere deep down inside him, he was just plain happy to have someone sitting beside him at that moment. "No matter how high up you get whether it's on a mountain or up in a tree, it's still just out of reach even when it looks so close."

"It's quite beautiful." She replied soothingly as she stretched her legs out. "I overheard from Anko-sensei and Tazuna that the bridge will be completed within a day or two at the most."

"So we're going home?"

"I would think so. I mean, Anko-sensei did say that we were only going to stay until the bridge was finished."

Finally he turned to face her, his eyes glowing with an unearthly but fantastic silver glow that seemed to only further accentuate his blue irises. A sweet and almost innocent smile graced his face as he sat there drenched in the silvery rays of light. Beside him, Hinata was clothed in a pair of basic black pajama pants with her spare jacket zipped up over her chest. Her short dark hair was down and pushed back behind her ears while leaving a single bit of her bangs hanging in her face while she gazed back at him with an equally kind smile. In the moonlight, her skin seemed even paler and more like white porcelain than it was, making her appear almost as a ghastly phantom that left the sweet scent of lilac swirling in his mind while she sat there beside him. "You know, I think I could live in a place like this. Someplace near the open ocean… where you can taste the salt in the air and hear the waves come crashing against the rocks. Too bad this vacation is over."

"You n-never know, we might be assigned another m-mission like this n-next." Hinata replied, a smile on her lips.

"Yeah… Listen Hinata, I just want to say… to say thanks for not hating what I am."

Hinata fell silent for a moment, leaving a comfortable tension between the two of them before she finally spoke again.

"Why would I hate you?" She asked honestly.

"Some people just would… you know the people in the village; they would fear what I might become because of what I am and it's just nice to know that not everyone is that way." Hinata didn't reply to his truthful statement but instead just gripped his hand a little tighter. In a way he had not expected when he was put on Team Nine, he was becoming accustomed to her; he was becoming accustomed to having someone he could simply talk to.

"…I couldn't hate you… You're the kind of person I want to be."

Hinata's immeasurably kind words caught him off-guard for a moment, leaving him blushing uncontrollably like a swooning schoolgirl. Naruto couldn't help but just smile broader as he raised his eyes and looked up at the ivory moon as it covered his little slice of oceanic paradise in a soft silver glow. Without saying a word, he released her hand and just slid his arm around her waist, feeling the warmth of her body spread through his as he slid her up beside him. Unlike when he put his hand on her shoulder, Naruto could not feel a single twitch echo through her slender body as he held her there, only a peaceful stillness that seemed to radiate from her to him. As she laid her head down on his shoulder without breaking the silence, the two of them just remained there and watched the moon trace its silvery path across the sky.

It was the perfect way to end the night.

* * *

Author's Note: Well now, this chapter took a far more NaruHina tone than I had originally anticipated but trust me when I say it'll all come in to play come later on. You can thank Coldplay's Everything's Not Lost for the romantic inspirations. Anyways, I'll be back soon with another chapter but first I've got about two days worth of work that I need to catch up on. As always, review honestly; I like to know what people think.

Peace.


	9. Chapter 8: Precious, Part I

Author's Note: First off, holy crap I can't believe I've gotten 5000 hits on this thing. Thanks to everyone who's read .

Now that that's out of the way, I'm back and finally up to a point I've really been waiting for: the bridge. Now before I start off, there are a few questions from a review posted by Sien that I'd like to take time to answer as they were very good questions, mainly regarding the Hyuga family not seeing Naruto and also his heritage. First, the main reason that no one in the Hyuga clan besides Hinata has noticed the irregularity in Naruto's chakra is that none of them have been around or really cared to look at him using the Byakugan. He was just an Academy student of no real importance until the start of the main story so the only Hyuga he's really been around is Hinata as Neji isn't in their class. Second, as for the question of what the Bijuu are in this story, they're demons this time around because I just felt it'd be easier to explain them once things progress a little. Finally, as for who Naruto's father is: All I'm going to say is that each of the Bijuu can take on and maintain a human form (which is why he's always appeared human) so you'll have to wait and see. Anyways, chapter time; enjoy it and review honestly. I love the feedback even if it's a flame.

"I…" indicates speech.

"_I…" _indicates inner thought.

"_**I…"**_ indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

(I) indicates timeskip.

* * *

Chapter 8: Precious, Part I

* * *

_"What do you have to report?" Asked the shadowy figure as he stepped into view, watching the rest of them with a look of completely murderous psychosis that only further accentuated his already ghost-like features. Looking him square in the eye was like looking at the worst monster imaginable and then taunting him while utterly exposing every square inch of your body. It still sent shockwaves of rightfully-placed fear deep into the hearts of the other men in the room, leaving them standing there like scared little children in his presence. _

_"W-we have successfully located the t-target as you requested, milord." The man who spoke up did so in the quivering voice of an utter weakling. From where he was standing, the group's leader could easily see the stammering little insect's legs shaking like jelly as he stood to deliver his message. "As p-per your orders, w-we have d-dispatched a messenger to our allies re-regarding your plans for him."_

_"And?" The leader was already getting impatient with this one. Perhaps he would kill him today._

_"They h-have agreed to y-your request and w-will t-try to avoid all p-potential c-contact with h-him during the o-operation." _

_"Very well. You are all dismissed." They hurried from the room like the worthless little rats they were, leaving him to his own devices for the time being as they continued with the arrangements he had been planning. He could not help but smile as he relaxed upon his serpentine throne, a deep and sinister grin rising on his cheeks that could send even the stoutest of men into despair when they looked upon his deviled visage. Across from where he sat and directly above the door that his underlings had all fled out of, the hung one single crest of a white and red fan, the symbol of his target. As he looked upon it, he could not help but draw one of the kunai he had in the folds of his robes and send it squarely into the middle of the stone that the crest was painted upon. With a contented, demented cackle welling up inside of him, Orochimaru just stared at the planted knife and began to laugh into the torch-lit darkness._

(I)

Naruto could feel the world slowly and wonderfully slip into place as he awoke, the familiar sound of the ocean waves outside his room filling his body with a wondrous feeling of intense peace. Outside his room, the sun shone down across the bay surrounding Tazuna's house with a beautiful natural glow that filled the whole room with a refreshing warmth. The wonderful fragrance of lilac from where Hinata had sat at the doorway the night before mixed in easily with the tantalizing scent of the salt-filled air outside and greeted his nostrils, waking his sleepy mind in the process. All around him, the world just seemed brighter, a little bit more at peace than it had been in the last few weeks. There was something different about today; he could already just _feel_ it.

As he sat up, his mind slowly came to the realization he was alone in the room. Kaname, who had been soundly sleeping on the other side of the room when Naruto had finally turned in for the night, was already up and gone as his futon had already been made and the rest of the room had been cleaned and organized. Save the kitsune's own movements, the room was completely silent.

Climbing from the bed, he dressed quickly in the last spare set of clothing he had. Most of his other clothes save the orange and black jacket he wore were now either ripped or in desperate need of a good scrubbing after the last week of wearing them thin with training. As he pulled a dark blue t-shirt with the symbol of the Leaf Village in orange on the front of it down over his head, the son of the Kyuubi let his mind drift back to the night before and his time with Hinata. They had sat together for nearly an hour last night, neither of them saying a word as they watched the radiant pearl light of the moon as it danced with the rolling waves in the bay below. It had filled him with an intense peace… a complete feeling of utter calm that had spread through him from the second she had told him something that he never imagined: that she wanted to be like him. The preteen fox had been humbled when she spoke those words and it still shook him to know someone actually looked up to him.

"Nine night of matter…" He sang aloud into the silent air of the room, his thoughts becoming consumed with those already precious memories. Naruto had always been watching Sakura when he was back at the Academy, just hoping that maybe she would look his way but she had always shunned him and looked down on him with disgust. With Hinata, he could feel none of that but just a complete honesty in her and it made him content… maybe even happy. "Fearless on my breath…"

Pulling his jacket around his shoulder without zipping it, he walked from the room and began to search for any sign of his fellow team members or their client-host. Walking down the hallway toward the room Hinata had been sharing with Anko-sensei, he began to smell out the air with his heightened senses to try and locate them. What greeted his unsuspecting nose was not the aroma of fresh lilac that accompanied his Hyuga friend or a foreign scent of sand and fresh linen that was Kaname or even the 

smell of the fragrant chamomile and green tea leaf in Anko's shampoo but rather something entirely different. There was a stench of fear upon the air this morning.

His eyes narrowed as he began to pick on the details of the almost overpowering stink of cold sweat and anxiousness; it was coming from outside the house. From the odors he was picking up with it, Naruto could tell that it was emanating from Tazuna's daughter Tsunami and her young son Inari but what really got his mind going was the fact that, if he was interpreting his still new senses correctly, they were not alone.

Coupled with the young boy and his mother were the putrid odors of two unknown people, people that carried with them a scent of manic greed that filled the wind unwelcomed. Naruto could almost feel the… the simplistic evil that these men represented as he smelled the air to determine their exact location around him. Once he picked up on it fully, his mind began to tell him that they were on the dock outside Tazuna's house along with Inari and Tsunami, who by now were beginning to reek of thugs. He quickly put two and two together, thinking about just who the unknowns were as he drew a kunai and wrapped his quickly tensing fingers around its leather-wrapped handle. _'Gato's men.'_

Naruto moved rapidly, shooting through the window of Hinata's room with all the speed he could muster as he rocketed up to the roof of the house. His eyes immediately moved to small dock where he was detecting the four people, his suspicions instantly confirming themselves as he landed on the roof's edge while he focused his chakra to maintain balance on the ridiculously uneven surface. Standing on the wooden dock silhouetted against the backdrop of clear blue water behind them, one twisted-looking man Naruto could only assume were some of Gato's hired thugs held Inari at the edge of a sword while the other was tying his frightened mother up as she watched her terrified little boy helplessly. The one tying up Tsunami had an almost sickly perverted look of enjoyment on his face, the look of true human refuse that had no place in this world for people like him only brought the suffering of others. Disgustingly, Naruto could smell his hormones racing as he pulled the rope tight against her quivering skin.

_'I'll have to take them out both at the same time… If I don't they can still use one of their hostages against me." _The boy kitsune thought silently as he crept up to the top of the roof, never taking his eyes from his next two victims. In his heightened mind, a crazy but necessary plan was forming as he began to call on his chakra.

From deep within him, Naruto could feel his heritage beginning to feed his seemingly _human_ body with an almost feral strength. Pulling himself up to the very edge of the roof, he could simply feel his whole body tense up as he let his instincts take over and calculate exactly he was about to do and how he was about to do it. He could smell and taste the two men below him, completely unaware of their now imminent deaths as the young Kyuubi readied himself to throw the kunai in his hand. Crawling backwards along the spine of the roof he was perched on he scooted back until he was fully out of the thugs' field of view and then pushed himself up. He took one last deep breath of the fresh sea air and went down on all fours like a wild animal.

_'No mistakes.'_ Naruto told himself. Pushing off with his powerful legs he took off for the edge of the roof.

(I)

"Yakuna, finish tying up that bitch already. Gato'll need these two soon so let's finish up and get the hell outta here." The one holding Inari with his sword yelled as he once again tightened his grip on the runt of a kid. Across from him his partner had been taking his sweet time wrapping the bridge-builder's daughter in the ropes they brought as he was enjoying the feel of her too much.

"Gato just told us to bring them back with us; he didn't say we couldn't have a little bit of fun first Koji." The second demented kidnapper replied as he once again pretended to fumble with the ropes to give himself a reason to brush up against her and watch her squirm beneath his touch. Gato had ordered both his partner and him to kidnap Tazuna's family members today while he and his escorts had gone to the bridge just in case Zabuza failed them. As the crime boss had explained it to his two underlings, these two were insurance to get Gato to surrender if the missing-nin they had hired failed today. Once the old man surrendered, Yakuna would have the pleasure of making Gato a very happy man by killing off the bridge-builder and these two just to prevent them from ever making trouble for him again.

"Yakuna, I'm serious man. I think we should get back before the boss gets angry and–"

The tattooed thug's final words were cut off as a single blackened knife shot squarely into his forehead, raining down a spray of crimson on a stunned Inari. With a resounding thud the man fell backward onto the wooden dock, already dead.

"KOJI!" Yakuna screamed as his longtime friend fell down lifelessly, his eyes immediately shooting around to try and see who had done such a horrible thing. Seeing the assassin, however, did nothing but give him a second to pray to Kami for forgiveness for his life.

(I)

Naruto dove down through the air, an orange clad hawk silhouetted against the clear blue sky as he tore through the open air at the one remaining thug. He had thrown the kunai in his hand perfectly the second he had leapt from the roof of Tazuna's house, taking out one of Gato's punks with pinpoint accuracy while he rocketed down toward the other one. Despite being so young, the fox's eyes radiated a fierce and merciless red energy as he curled up his right hand into a solid fist and pulled it back next to his head. The other thug, the one Naruto had heard being called Yakuna had only a second to turn around before he saw the kitsune falling through the sky toward him. With a look of pure determination, Naruto threw his fist out with every ounce of strength he could muster, slamming it into squarely into the side of the gangster's head with the force of a falling boulder.

It was as if the kitsune had been punching through a pane of thin glass because he could literally feel Yakuna's bones shatter like the thinnest windowpane under such a devastating blow. Having never had the time to cry out for help, the thug just shot off the dock and soared over the water before finally coming to rest a good twenty feet away, not moving.

Naruto landed on the dock behind Tsunami and Inari, who both simply stared at the unholy powerful boy with complete shock. Inari was stunned and gripped by fear as he peered out at the kitsune boy from behind a blood-covered face, not capable of saying a word because of what he had just seen someone only twelve years old do without so much as a single twitch of emotion. So, instead of trying to take the time to explain anything to them that they really would probably never be ready to 

understand, Naruto simply pulled another kunai from the pouch on his belt and quickly slit the ropes that held Inari's equally stunned mother.

"Get to the village and get to safety. Once Gato figures out these two failed, he'll send more." Naruto commanded bluntly as he turned away from them. "I'm going to the bridge; Zabuza's going to attack Tazuna again."

Without another word, he took off like a flash of crimson lightning, his chakra starting to wrap around him like a cloak of rose-red determination.

(I)

_The Great Bridge_

_That same moment_

Anko breathed in deeply, her eyes shifting back and forth as she, Tazuna, Kaname, and Hinata continued toward the construction site at the end of the enormously long bridge that Tazuna and the village of Wave had been constructing for what must have been months now. Her years of living as a shinobi were already sending her senses on edge as she watched and listened to the world around her. Instead of the sounds of heavy machinery grinding or the conversations of a hundred different construction workers greeting her ears, there was nothing but an all too eerie silence. Instead of movement in the distance where Tazuna's workers should be going about their task, there was nothing but an empty stretch of concrete and steel that stretched on for a good five hundred feet to the unfinished edge of the bridge. Just where the hell was everybody?

"Hinata, Kaname; be alert. I want you two to take up position around Tazuna." The young jonin commanded, not even looking back to confirm her order. Deep within her, her training and instincts were beginning to tell her that something was seriously wrong and she didn't want to risk Tazuna's life by being unprepared. Yet even with them, she was honestly not prepared for what happened next.

"Do you really think that they can protect him?" A dark and ominous voice called from behind them, a voice that sent shivers of cold fear down Anko's spine as she whipped around. He stood only twenty feet behind the four of them and stared her down without so much as the slightest hint of any emotion, just pure killing intent. Next to him stood the same young female shinobi that had pretended to be one of Kiri's hunters, peering out at Team Nine like a lifeless phantom from behind the porcelain mask she wore. "Do you really think they can stop _me_?"

"Zabuza." Anko spoke hollowly, her eyes narrowing as she stared out at him.

"You guessed it." He said without as much as a single twitch as he reached back and undid the strap that held his sword. Beside him, the young masked kunoichi that accompanied him slipped her pale hands into the folds of her sleeve, drawing out some of the same senbon needles she had used to fake her master's death. Clutching them in between her knuckles, the girl looked like a clawed beast. Zabuza, meanwhile, was simply stoic and collected as he pulled down his face mask to talk to them better, his left hand gripping the handle of his Zanbatō. "I have to admit that I'm going to take a good amount of pleasure in seeing you all die after what you and your genin brats did to me last week… However, I am not completely out of mercy and the kids are still young so I'll give them a chance to get out of here before I kill both you and the old man, Anko of the Serpent."

Anko's eyes twitched just barely noticeably at the mention of her own title in most shinobi's black book. Though she had just become a jonin in Konoha, because of just _who_ her instructor had been she was infamous and it made her sick.

The brown-haired sensei thought for a second about Zabuza's offer. In her mind, she knew that even with the hard training that her genin had put in over the last week they were nowhere near ready to face someone like the Mist swordsman or his young and incredibly lethal partner. Anko beat herself up for not waking Naruto up that morning and bringing him with them; at the very least he might have been able to lose control and become enough of a problem for the Kiri assassins that she could get in and strike a good kill. Yet she had to curse her own bad luck as he was probably still sound asleep three miles away in Tazuna's house without a care in the world. So as she thought out her options, she knew the genin would probably die if she didn't let them escape now.

Anko opened her mouth to speak but was cut off before she even got out a word by the most unlikely of voices.

"No!" Hinata shouted boldly. Anko's head whipped around to see the timid and silent member standing braced and fully prepared for battle. The eldest daughter of the Hyuga main branch stood firm in front of Tazuna, her palms stretched out in front of her in the Juken fighting style that her clan was famous for. Her usually bright and youthful eyes had sharpened and intensified as she activated her kekkai genkai. Not prepared for such a… a strong stance from her normally quiet rookie, Anko could only stare in amazement at what Hinata was doing.

Zabuza seemed amused by the young Hyuga girl's braveness as he watched her. "You honestly think I can't or won't kill you?"

"Y-you could kill me, b-but I'm n-not going to s-surrender to someone like you." Hinata replied firmly, the veins around her fully activated eyes twitching ever so slightly as they poured more blood and chakra into her Byakugan. "I m-may not be s-strong enough to f-fight against you and win b-but I won't r-run away!"

"Oh and why is that?" Zabuza asked, his exposed lips curling upward into menacing grin as he tightened his grip around his Zanbatō. As Hinata stood ready, her mind began filling with the few short but eternally important memories she had made over the last week since they had arrived in this village. Before she had come here, she had just been the failure daughter of the Hyuga's main branch; she had been nothing more than a complete and utter letdown to her father. To him and more importantly herself, she had been weak. Yet, in the last week since Naruto had shared the truth of what he was with her she had watched him and began to understand that it wasn't just his heritage that made him strong, it was his determination. Naruto had worked from sun up to sun down to improve himself each and every day they had been in this tiny little fisherman's village; he had done everything he could to prove his own… his own existence. He wanted to prove that he could be more than just the son of the Great Fox. He didn't give up. And because of that more than anything else, Hinata would not give up either; she had to be strong if she ever wanted to be a real part of his life.

"Because Naruto wouldn't!" Hinata roared, forcing herself not to stammer as she spoke.

Zabuza seemed to be at a loss of how to respond for a moment as he simply stared at the fierce young lavender-eyed Hyuga girl. Beside him, Haku gazed out at this unfamiliar yet so recognizable person who spoke to her master with such defiance and strength. Somewhat picking up on Hinata's feelings, Haku could not help but feel some measure of kinship to this strange little genin, feeling the same desire to emulate the one she held precious. Having always been alienated by everyone but Zabuza, the young mist kunoichi wondered who this girl was and just who was the one she wanted to be like was. However, she did not have time to dwell on it.

"… Haku, take care of that naïve little girl… I'm getting bored of this." Zabuza commanded bluntly, finally pulling his Zanbatō out in front of him.

"Kaname, protect Tazuna." Anko commanded as the young mist kunoichi leapt at Hinata. Immediately the two female ninja began trading blows, Haku striking out using the senbon needles between her knuckles like claws while Hinata carefully avoided her by anticipating her movements with the Byakugan.

Haku struck out at the Hyuga girl's chest, attempting to take her out quickly only to be blocked and sent to the floor with a quick parry. Following up with a rapid side-step coupled with a palm aimed Haku's neck, Hinata closed in to try and block off some of the chakra flow to her body. The mist ninja countered by kicking up off where she was laying and bringing her foot around to swiftly sweep out Hinata's legs. Knocked to the concrete, the Konoha-born girl quickly rolled backwards and dodged a potentially lethal lunge from Haku's needles. Even though the daughter of the Hyuga clan did not have anywhere near the battle experience as someone like Haku, she had learned enough Juken to hold her off until Anko-sensei took out Zabuza and then they all could corner this assassin.

Fifty feet away, meanwhile, Anko and Zabuza were just starting to trade blows. "Your annoying little punk genin seemed to have improved a little since we last met." Zabuza taunted as he tried to overpower Anko's kunai with his Zanbatō.

"You think… she's impressive, you should… see the boy she likes." Anko said with a smirk as she struggled to hold back the swordsman's weapon. After a moment of the two of them being locked in a dead grapple, Anko mustered all the strength she could to push him back for a moment so she could dodge out of the way as he brought his massive blade down into the concrete where she had been standing a split second earlier. Not stopping to watch her opponent, Anko fled backwards as the Demon of the Hidden Mist chased after her, swinging his sword out wildly in an attempt to land one clean blow against her. Slashing left then back right, he attacked her like a wild animal as she continued to backpedal across the open ground. A split second later, she stopped for a moment and sent all of her momentum forward to kick him square in the chest before retreating again. One last flip away from the slightly stunned shinobi across the wet stone that covered the bridge, Anko finally threw her arms outwards at Zabuza while she called on as much extra chakra as she could.

"Sen'eijashu!" Anko shouted as she punched outward.

It was a disturbing and creepy sight to see twenty snakes shoot out from seemingly nowhere as the serpents lunged from her sleeves towards Zabuza. Each one of them was maybe five feet long and they were all the same type of a cobra but in all different shades and hues, making the small force of snakes look like a monster's version of a rainbow. As one they all slithered rapidly across the concrete bridge toward Zabuza.

The mist swordsman reacted quickly; without an ounce of worry on his face he moved his hands through a set of signs while jumping back to avoid the lunging reptiles. "Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

'_Just like I thought. He doesn't realize that they'll be able to sense his body-heat through the mist.' _Anko thought as her twenty little beasts continued to slither after their target. Without even being able to see Zabuza through the unbelievably thick fog that had descended over the area, she knew that her summoned snakes were already drawing in to strike him. After all, why would they need to see someone when they could already taste their body heat as it radiated off of their skin. She just had to sit back and wait for one of them to strike. Once at least one of them did so, she could dismiss them all and perform the move she had been preparing for since the last time that she and the swordsman of the mist had fought only a week earlier. All it would take is one single solitary wound for her to do what she was going to do. And using a little bit of Zabuza's blood as the fuel, she was going to start a fire that would utterly destroy him.

Suddenly though, the mist dissipated, leaving only a perfectly collected yet demonic looking Zabuza standing in the midst of twenty decapitated serpents, his mask pulled back up over his grinning mouth. On either side of him was a pair of slowly evaporating water clones, each one of them turning to a fine mist as they imploded from the force of the numerous snakebites.

"Pathetic," He said simply before pulling his sword back up and lunging after her once again.

As her sensei once again began to trade narrowly avoided blade strikes with the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Hinata turned her completely activated eyes back to her own opponent. So far, the young masked kunoichi had proved more than an equal to the Hyuga girl, having gotten close enough to have killed Hinata at least three times if she had not dodged in time. Even with the Byakugan, Hinata was having trouble reading Haku's movements in any hope of predicting them. Usually when she fought someone, her eyes allowed her to analyze the chakra flow in their body to possibly 'see' their next move before it came. Yet Haku was something else entirely; her movements were faster than anyone she had ever seen at that age and her skill was truly something to be admired. Hinata didn't know if she was holding back or if she was just truly giving it her all but there was something extraordinary about this shinobi; she was truthfully the perfect representation of what it meant to be a good assassin.

"W-why… are y-you two d-doing this?" Hinata asked almost desperately as she sent a quick palm towards Haku's left arm only have her blow parried with a sideways punch from Haku's left hand. Stepping to the side, Hinata felt her ribs buckle on the punishment but luckily none of them had broken. However, she was slowly having her energy drained by such a long taijutsu match so that luck would probably not continue very much longer.

Haku didn't respond, remaining solely focused on the task her master had assigned her with the utmost of dedication. Yet under her mask, her face was slowly forming into a small weary grimace. For the last eight years since her own father had tried to kill her she had lived either on the streets or at Zabuza's side. Despite only being a fifteen year old girl, she had already taken more lives than most private militaries; she had killed people left and right without hesitation, all because Zabuza would tell her that this person was going to die or that person was going to die. Instead of growing up like a normal teenage girl, instead of wondering about who she might want to marry one far off day from now, she spent her time driving needles into people because she was Zabuza's weapon. Yet even so, she may not have always liked the die that Kami had cast for her life, but she would always do whatever Zabuza told 

her to. He had saved her when no one else would even look at her, had given her a place and reason to live again. So if he told her to kill this girl, she would do so without hesitation and not worry about answering the girl's questions. That was all she could do for her precious person.

Without a word Haku lunged in at Hinata once more, diving at her as she slashed downward. The Hyuga girl quickly stepped to the side and countered by bringing her right palm around toward the side of Haku's chest. Unable to dodge fully this time, Haku took a bit of the Leaf kunoichi's chakra draining techniques as she rolled away, one of the gates near the left side of her ribs closing inside her.

Haku grunted at the rapid wave of pain that shot through her body from the attack, forcing her petite yet defined body not to lose any balance as she pushed herself back to her feet. Across from her, Hinata stood boldly and defiantly in preparation for the next round of their little dance number. The girl was already proving to be a fairly decent opponent for someone of such a young age but Haku could rest assured of her own victory as she had yet to fully utilize her potential.

"Your taijutsu is rather impressive... Unfortunately though, I need to finish you now… I'm sorry; it's really nothing personal but my master has requested that I dispose of you. Please don't hold this against me." Haku murmured to her opponent as she stood up straight, brushing a few loose particles of concrete from her clothing. As Hinata watched on with her Byakugan eyes, the young mist assassin began to go through a few handsigns. Instead of attacking with her senbon again, she slowly hid the needles back in the slots on her arms as her hands performed the necessary couple of signs to begin her ninjutsu and take care of her opponent once and for all. After all, no matter how skilled she was at dodging, she was not going to be able to dodge an attack like the one Haku was preparing. "Hyoton!"

Instantly a thousand razor-sharp needles appeared in the air directly above Hinata, floating there in space like the world's largest and most devastating snowflake. With all the moisture in the air and around her, Haku had no doubt she could have made more but there was simply no need to as this would more than completely finish the task that she had been assigned. Hinata, meanwhile, just stared at the mass of icy spikes with wide-eyed fear; unable to make her legs move to get her out from underneath the structure of it. Haku knew she had won; there was no way that her opponent could dodge all of her needles without having something that would work as a shield or some way to move out of the way before they all impaled her. This battle was over.

"Goodbye." Haku said without the slightest bit of emotion as she prepared to let them fly.

"KATON: GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!"

Instead of Hinata's quick and virtually painless death at the tips of hundreds of icy spears, the Hyuga girl just stood there stunned and dazed as a massive fireball shot right over her head, leaving behind only a wave of steam that washed throughout the air. Twenty feet behind her, the teenage boy who had just saved her life stood confidently, his eyes glowing a deep and powerful crimson as he stared down the ice shinobi with a look of pure anger at the young Kiri ninja's actions. In his mouth, the fangs that grew with his teeth were already making him look more and more like a feral beast as he growled audibly at Haku from his perch on the bridge's railing. As Hinata finally turned to see him, he was already at her side, pushing back that single strand of fiery red hair that looked so interestingly inhuman when compared to the blond that covered the rest of his head.

"Na-naruto?" Hinata asked as he put his hand on her shoulder, not turning his attention away from the mist kunoichi across from him.

"You… Do you know what you give up when kill someone?" His words were as bold and direct as they were questioning and hurt as he spoke them. Hinata was almost stunned by his seemingly simplistic choice of words as he stared down the young shinobi across from him. In the eyes of the boy she had admired for so long was a look of pure anguish and anger like she had never seen in him, not even on the day that he had erased both of the demon brothers from the world. The kitsune boy did not try to hide any part of his emotion but rather just allowed the two kunoichi to see him for what he really was. Within him, Hinata could see that he was trying desperately to come to terms with the fact that, even being only a twelve-year-old boy, he had already killed three people like he told her back at Tazuna's, all three of them in the last two weeks alone. At the It made a little more sense to her that he had become distant to the rest of the world. "Or have you already given that part of your humanity up?"

"So I take it you're the one your friend was speaking about earlier. Naruto, right?" Haku replied without emotion as she didn't even acknowledging his words. "If you're really the reason she fights, I can see why. Most people, especially those of a genin level, could not destroy my ice with a simple fire release and you didn't even have the slightest difficulty… Impressive."

Naruto seemed to be growing more and more angered by her callous response. "Don't you even care that you were about to kill someone even younger than you?"

"I do what _he _tells me; a shinobi's life _is_ murder," Was Haku's curt and direct answer.

"Hinata, go back and guard Tazuna with Kaname. I'll take care of this."

With her silver, pupil-free eyes Hinata watched as the vast ocean of blood-red chakra within her precious friend began to swirl and twist about violently, as though it were waters being pulled down through a deep whirlpool leading to the ocean floor. Her mind was still numb by the fact that she could have died only moments earlier but even more than that she was in awe of what she was seeing and hearing from Naruto. Had he not come along, she would have been lying in a pool of her own crimson liquid at that moment but instead he had rescued her yet again and turned just a simple battle into an almost philosophical moment for her and the person she was fighting, asking a question that Hinata did not truly think she ever wanted to answer, no matter what. He was already starting to grow up and change. So as she forced her legs to work and her body to turn away from her blonde-headed companion, her mind raced with just what was going on inside of the Kyuubi that was making him change from the boy she knew to the man he was becoming. _'Is this what it means for him to become like his real mother… to become one of the Bijuu?"_

"Even though you may have been able to break my needles, I am sorry to say that you will not be able to defeat me." Haku said calmly as she stretched her hands out in front of her.

Naruto didn't reply but let his fox chakra begin building through every cell of his body.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to kill you. Maykō Hyō Shō" Her hands moving in rapid succession through a series of signs, Naruto watched as a set of mirror-like sheets of ice began to form up from the ground all around him. In a matter of seconds, he was completely surrounded by the mirrors as they extended up around him to form a full dome on every side of the boy. From behind one of the 

crystallized sheets of ice, Haku slowly stepped in and seemed to become one with it. As she did so, each of the mirrors reflected her own robed body as though she had slipped into each and every one of them. Staring into the twenty one perfectly identical pictures of the girl who had just tried to kill his friend and now kill him, Naruto could almost taste her scent all around him as he began to focus using his kitsune heritage.

Naruto could only smirk as he picked up on the origin of her unique smell coming from the mirror directly behind him. Unlike Hinata's aroma of lilac or Kaname's smell of linen and desert sand, this young little kunoichi from Kirigakure had a distinctly interesting fragrance about made of two scents that he was rather surprised to breathe in at the same time together. The first was a rich and almost overpowering bouquet of what he knew all too well to be nothing other than dried human blood, possibly from the senbon that she had hidden up her sleeves. However, the odor of blood was not alone but instead mixed in with the same marvelous air of saltwater that he had breathed in since the moment they had arrived at Tazuna's house. Perhaps it was the fact that they were out on a bridge over the ocean or just the fact that she was, by nature, a ninja of the mist like he should have been but something about the ocean's airs just made him feel at peace despite the fact that she was there to try and kill him.

As he stared at all the mirrors, not ever turning his eyes to the one behind him where he knew she lay in wait because of his sense of smell, he could not help but begin to wonder what kind of technique she was using. "You know, I gotta ask how someone as young as yourself performed something like this. I used to be Kiri myself but I never heard anything about it."

"You were from Kirigakure?" Twenty one voices echoed out, each one of them from one of the many mirrors.

"A long time ago, yeah." He replied honestly.

"Then you should understand why someone like me would not be wanted in the Mist. After all, kekkai genkai are dangerous." With those last six words, Naruto heard the wind behind him shift almost unnoticeably as the young assassin moved from one of the mirrors to another one in front of him, firing off ten senbon at the area around his feet in the split second of transit time. The preteen kitsune couldn't help but grimace a little at her reaction and answer; he hadn't had to dodge her first attack because it was just a warning but still the fact that her words were true made him feel ashamed to still want to be Mizukage one day. As he stared down at the thin acupuncture needles now around his feet, he found himself wanting to apologize to her. "I hope that satisfies your curiosities because I am afraid I cannot answer any more of your questions."

She moved again, firing off a whole volley of needles at all parts of his body as she nearly teleported from one mirror to the next.

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed from outside the dome of ice.

* * *

Author's Note: Well for only eleven pages that took far longer than usual so sorry the update's been slow. Long story short, I've been getting my ass kicked on multiple fronts lately --. Anyways, next time around will be the conclusion to the Land of Mist arc so I'll have it up soon. Review honestly and I'll see you all later. Peace.


	10. Chapter 9: Precious, Part II

Author's Note: After this chapter, I'll finally be finished with the Land of Waves arc and done with what I consider to be the complete prologue for this story. Anyways, thanks to everyone who has been reading this story so far because it's kind of cool to think that someone's interested in the going-ons in this story as almost all of my stories usually bomb after a chapter or two. Now to reply to a few reviews, to ZaBuchar on Naruto's chakra: pretty much he can use it without any real danger to his own life because it's actually his chakra (he is a kitsune so it's not like he's drawing it from another). To Bassclone: Kaname's name is actually my way of paying homage to two of my favorite captains, Zaraki Kenpachi and Tōsen Kaname. Well now that little bit of joy expression is out of the way, time for the chapter.

"I…" indicates speech.

'_I…' _indicates inner thought.

"_**I..."**_ indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

* * *

Chapter 9: Precious, Part II

* * *

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed in horror as she watched the fox's body getting peppered with a good twenty needles inside Haku's prison of mirrors and ice. Even with how powerful Naruto was becoming, even with his inhumanly fast healing ability, the boy was still brought to his knees by such a brutally effective move. After all, Haku knew where to throw the needles to cause the most damage to an opponent even despite her somewhat peaceful nature.

"Heh; it looks like even the girl's little inspirational figure is no match for Haku." Zabuza taunted almost merrily as he and Anko locked blades again, the clang of metal on metal filling the air around the bridge. When he had seen the kid appear suddenly and destroy all of Haku's needles of ice without almost any effort, the missing-nin from Kiri had to admit that he had become a little worried about just how strong this boy was. Zabuza had already witnessed Naruto take on a slice of his sword almost full force only a week ago and he was already back up to fighting strength so he did not know what to expect. However, as it turned out not even the boy could stand up to the kind of beating that Haku could dish out. "I can't honestly say I'm surprised."

"Don't count him… or me… out just yet." Anko spat as she knocked Zabuza back for just a second with a strong kick to the side of his body. Immediately she followed up by quickly performing five handsigns, gathering her chakra into her hands. _'Boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram.' _Biting down on her thumb and letting the blood flow freely, Anko slammed her hand down onto the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

_'I've gotta say, I never thought I'd really have a reason to use her again. It's been a while since I've actually fought anyone while I was working as the chuunin proctor. But if Zabuza really wants to go ahead and think of me as the snake, I might as well go ahead and give him a little more reason to do so.' _Anko thought for a moment as a massive cloud of white smoke encircled her. From within the acrid white plume something was stirring, a beast truly worthy of a battle like this that she had not called on for nearly ten years now. It was one of the most powerful weapons she had in the arsenal she had 

'inherited' from the psychopathic bastard of a man who had once trained her and probably the only thing she was okay with tying her to her previous life of being his little test subject. So as the white cloud began to clear away and reveal the azure-scaled serpent she had summoned, Anko could not help but smirk a little.

"Do you like her?" She asked in a twisted seductive voice as the last puff of smoke blew away. "She's a little gift I picked up from my ex-master before I went back to the Leaf, a baby Kyodaija that will one day grow maybe even as big as this bridge before she reaches maturity."

Zabuza's eyes went wide as he saw the massive monster of a snake that the jonin standing across from him had summoned. It was a gargantuan snake at least fifteen feet long and a good two feet thick at her thickest point, a beast of a reptile with scales the color of the same blue waters deep below the bridge. Curled up around her body like one gigantic set of vines, the coral blue serpent was a menacing looking fiend with a pointed head that stared at Zabuza's unmoving body coldly and flatly, watching him as though it was already picturing what he might taste like. Such an ice cold pair of slits for eyes sent a bitter shiver from the base of his neck all the way down his back to the very base of his spine. "Her name is Bara, the Blue Rose." Anko's voice rang in his ears as he stared at the beastly creature.

"End him." Anko whispered as the serpent slowly slithered up until its head was even with her own.

(I)

On the other side of the bridge, Naruto was struggling to climb to his feet once again. Due to Haku's nearly instantaneous method of attack, his body had been impaled by her senbon needles already close to thirty times and he still had no idea of how to possibly defend against the wickedly powerful ice manipulator. Thanks to his sense of smell, he could at least tell where she was when she was in one of the mirrors but she was jumping so ridiculously fast between each one of the twenty one sheets of ice it was confusing his nose and making it impossible for him to pinpoint her. So his mind raced desperately through all possible means of defense or attack he could muster, he just had to sit back and take each and every one of the agonizing attacks head on. And as Haku was a master at finding the best point to attack to put him down, even his advanced healing factor was becoming nothing more than a useless gesture.

_'Damnit! Even if I were to try and escape the dome instead of fighting her, she's moving so fast that she could knock me back into the center of it before I made it out.' _Naruto grimaced as another salvo of the razor sharp needles shot into his legs and arms. Already his body was becoming heavier and heavier as his blood fell freely onto the ground beneath him. _'I can't see her when she attacks because she's going too fast and there are too many mirrors to pinpoint her scent. Wait a minute, eliminate a few of the mirrors and I'll be able to find her easier or even drive her into a corner!'_

Over his head, a flash of forest green and beige shot across the dome and peppered his exposed back with another ten needles, each and every one of them sending sharp waves of pain directly up and down his nervous system.

"Naruto!" Hinata shouted in fear again from just outside the prison of ice, her pupil-free eyes filled with a gripping fear that the boy she had always loved was going to be killed today.

"Stay back, Hinata!" He called out, holding his hand out to tell her to stop from trying to come in and rescue him. Even if he hadn't exactly been the brightest student in the Academy, Naruto wasn't stupid. If Hinata were to try and come in here, she would be welcoming her own death and that was not something he was anywhere close to being ready to accept, especially not so he could live. However, if he didn't do something soon he would be six feet deep and that would leave Haku to take her and Kaname out before killing Tazuna as well. So as his eyes darted back and forth across the twenty one mirrors in front of him, each one showing him Haku but without telling him whether she was real or illusion, he began to focus and think on how to beat the Kiri assassin. _'All that she's using is basic ice so if I can figure out a way to get rid of the ice, then no more mirrors… Fire!' _

A sly smile crept across Naruto's face, giving way for the tiniest stream of his blood to roll down from the edges of it. The mirrors _were _made of ice so with enough fire, he could take them all down quickly and hopefully catch Haku up in the blaze as well. And thanks to the training he had done for the last week involving his shadow clones, he had the perfect blaze waiting.

Ever since Jiraiya had told him about just what he was, he had been thinking about the Kyuubi's power more and more. It was said to have been the Queen of the Bijuu, the true ruler of all demons because of its near limitless chakra and strength according to all the books he had received in the Academy. However, that didn't tell him a thing as to what he really was, just that he might have some fabled amount of power when he really began to become like his biological mother. So, in the brief hour between when he met Tazuna and when they left the village, he had asked his grandfather himself what he knew about the Kyuubi. The sannin's answers were mostly the same as everyone else's; it was a demon after all and they were not known for associating with the world of humans. However, he had told Naruto at least one good, important fact Naruto had never heard before: the Kyuubi was the embodiment of elemental fire. That meant that he was, too.

So with that knowledge in the back of his head, he had begun to experiment and train over the last week on a epically large amount of fire manipulation using what he knew about the fireball technique and his own shadow clones in-between training with Hinata on his chakra control and how to combine them without simply having clones performing the Goukakyu no Jutsu. He had wanted something that would provide the clones with a way to attack using a fire-based style but at the same time be able to defend themselves so they would not be dispelled as easily as his shadow clones. In the dead of night in the forest outside of Tazuna's house, he had thought long and hard on just how to accomplish his task and finally it came to him. The result was the first single jutsu that he had created himself. The problem though was the fact he had not had a chance to really test it out in a battle, not wanting to injure anyone. So now, Haku's mirrors were going to be his first real test subjects.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to try and defend yourself." Haku's cold and emotionless voice called twenty one times from all around him, unaware of what he was planning.

"Tell you what; I'll answer that question if you answer one for me first." Naruto replied simply with a forced chuckle, forcing himself to stand up fully straight despite the needles that were embedded deeply into his legs and back and the blood that was flowing from his body. For what he was about to do, he needed enough time to properly think and gather his chakra because, despite how much he had trained over the last week, he hadn't really finished up his studies on this new jutsu. It was complex at the very least and potentially deadly for both him and his opponent at the most so he had to make sure that he could figure everything out first. And if he could get this young girl from Kirigakure talking for 

even a minute, then he knew he could finish up his little plan. So as he began to gather as much chakra as he could from the deep wellspring within him, he said the only thing that was really on his mind regarding this girl. "Why exactly are you following someone like Zabuza? Even if you have a kekkai genkai, there are other villages beside the Mist that would have been proud to have as skilled of a ninja as you in them so why stick with a psycho like him?"

Haku hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether or not to answer someone who was a complete stranger. She had not spoken about her life before Zabuza to anyone since she had been responsible for her own father's death; not even her own master knew the deep dark secrets she kept locked away in her adolescent mind. After he found her on the street, it was as though he was kind enough or simply smart enough not to ask about the first eight years of her life. After all, she had been a starving street urchin _with_ a kekkai genkai so it was clear that something was not right in her life but he had never pressed the issue. However, if she was about to kill this young boy and his friends because Zabuza had asked it of her, a part of her wanted to be honest with him and just face her past for once. What would it hurt? "…When I was younger… I lost my family." Her voice took on a sad tone that he had not expected from someone who seemed so emotionless. "For a long time, I was forced to live out on the street even though I was only a child. Zabuza found me and… he saved me from what might have been. He gave me a purpose and reason to live… and I'm not going to forget that, despite whatever the world may think of him."

"So you became his 'weapon'." Naruto responded. Unlike most people's definition of the word, to a member of Kirigakure no Sato that word took on a meaning that inspired both fear and awe. A weapon was a ninja with a bloodline limit who dedicated him or herself solely to his or her master or to the village itself. Growing up in Kiri, Naruto had heard the word spoken in his schooling as a term of fear and hatred used to describe the kekkai genkai ninja of other lands who had helped to decimate Kiri and the Land of Waves during the Third Shinobi War. To call Haku such a term was something ominous and highly symbolic.

"…Yes. I became his weapon because _he _became my family…" She murmured. "He is my precious person."

Listening to her speak with such an open honesty to him like that, Naruto's mind became distanced from the reason he had got her talking as his eyes slowly glanced back to Hinata's unsure form standing beyond the veil of ice. Instead of focusing on how he was going to beat the ice-manipulator he was thinking about the relationships he was becoming involved in more and more each day. Even though it had only been about two weeks now since he had really begun to talk to her and become her friend, she was becoming someone he truly cared about. She was precious to him just like Zabuza was precious to Haku. Taking his mind off of Haku for a second, Naruto thought back to the previous evening and let every little detail come to him again; the smell of her fragrant lilac skin to the warmth that had emanated from her when he pulled her against him and especially the sense of… of peace and calm that she had filled him with as they had sat there and watched the moon. For him, those memories were precious and he would do anything to protect the person who had made them with him.

"Your… precious person…" Naruto replied in a voice of hallowed contemplation, watching Hinata out of the corner of his eye as she looked on at their battle.

"Does that satisfy your curiosity, Naruto?" Haku asked after a moment as her voice returned to its placid and uncaring tenor, noticing Naruto's crimson glowing eyes as they moved back to watch the 

young girl he was protecting. As she watched him from behind the porcelain of her mask, a part of her wished that Zabuza would just once show the same level of… of concern and caring in his eyes that she saw in this blonde-headed genin's. She didn't know what Naruto's story was or why he cared so much but she felt a kindred spirit burning within him, hidden just beneath the surface behind a pair of fiery red eyes.

"Yeah it does; and thanks for telling me the truth." Naruto replied simply as he brought his gaze back up to the mirror directly in front of him. Even though his mind might have gotten sidetracked with thoughts of Hinata while talking to the Kiri assassin, his instinctual brain had already formulated the best plan and worked everything out. Bringing up his face in a calm and confident smirk, Naruto stared directly into the mirror in front of him with an ice-cold and almost over-confident stare as he readied himself. Gathering all the chakra he could, his hands began to glow so faintly with a rose red veil that covered them just barely enough to be noticed. Without even giving his opponent a word of warning, Naruto's hands went into the familiar cross sign that he used when creating his shadow clones. "However, I'm not going to let you kill my friends just because you are trying to protect him. Though I can't deny I've killed people myself, I know that murder is not how you protect those closest to you. So I'm not letting you kill them."

"You don't realize something, Naruto; neither of them have the slightest chance of beating me. Nor do you." Haku responded coldly, still unaware of what he had planned.

"That's where you're wrong." His body immediately swirled with red chakra as he spoke those four words. "KATON: NENSHOU BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

From outside the dome, Hinata watched in terrible awe at just what was taking place before her eyes. Instead of Naruto standing alone and injured in the center of the icy prison, the kitsune was now surrounded by nine clones that all looked more like a pack of horrifying monsters than the boy she secretly loved. Wearing ripped and burnt versions of the orange jumpsuit he was famous for back home, they each looked like the hounds of hell come to earth. Each one of them was the same size and build as Naruto but their skin was not like that of a normal being; it was dark gray like charcoal but there were little cracks that went up and down the bodies of each and every clone. Those little hairline cracks in their skin revealed a shocking and equally disturbing sight: the glow of crimson beneath the fractured skin. It was as if their bodies were burning inside and the skin that covered them was nothing more than a layer of molten rock that was ready to break open at any moment. However, all of this paled in comparison to the one thing that really got her attention more than anything else: their eyes.

The eyes of these nine... these nine _burning_ clones as the technique had called them were nothing like Naruto's sparkling irises. Instead of a bright and vibrant sky blue or even the fierce red she had seen resting in his forehead, their eyes were hollow and empty sockets with the same crimson glow emanating from them like the cracks on their bodies. As she stared, she couldn't help but be afraid of these things that Naruto had summoned. Just what the hell were they?

"_**Haku. I'll give you one chance to stop this now and surrender. If you and Zabuza are willing to leave Tazuna alone for good, we'll be done here now.**_" From the center of his circle of fiery clones, Naruto spoke with a more mature and adult voice than he had ever spoken with in his life. All through him, his body was healing and repairing itself as wave after wave of his kitsune chakra he had been gathering for his jutsu flowed freely at last. "_**Otherwise, I'm going to finish this; got it?**_"

"What… are those?" Haku asked as stunned as Hinata was as she stared at the ten clones. She knew the usual types of bunshin jutsu: shadow, water, sand and earth; but she had never heard or seen anything like what he had created. There was something almost sinister about these clones, something fierce and dark unlike the simple recreations that Zabuza created from the water. As she stared at the nine cracked and charcoal-colored faces from behind the safety of her porcelain mask and mirrors of ice, she felt a very unfamiliar shiver travel from the base of her spine all the way up her neck. The gripping fear of those creations she was seeing was something so base that she honestly didn't know how to react to them. This boy and his… creatures were truly and utterly terrifying.

"_**Hmm…**_" He smirked slightly as he thought about what he should call them. Though he had created this new jutsu and these were technically called burning clones, he had not really thought about a name for the technique. Yet as he stared at the mirrors, the perfect name came to him. "_**I guess you could call them… the Kyuubi.**_"

"How… appropriate..." Haku replied, simply stunned.

"_**Ain't it?**_" Naruto's smirk grew a little more as he folded his arms over his chest. To Hinata it seemed as though he were shimmering and twisting like a mirage from where he stood in the midst of his nine fiery creations. She could already just barely feel the heat coming off of the clones from where she stood outside the ice dome, the tiniest little burn on the surface of her face like standing underneath the open sun for too long. Yet as she watched Naruto, she could not see the boy even barely flinch as he stood in the midst of what must have felt like a furnace to him. Was it a side-effect of his kitsune side or just his own personal determination in this fight, she wondered silently. "_**Now, I'll tell you what Haku. You give up and leave Hinata and everyone else alone and I promise to let you and Zabuza walk away from this bridge without another scratch.**_"

"You make it sound like you have already won." Haku replied simply.

Hinata's eyes only caught the tiniest gleam of silver metal and tiniest flash of rose red for a moment before she realized what had happened. In the span of a split-second after she had finished talking, Haku had leapt from one of the mirrors to another, throwing what must have been an incredible amount of needles at each of the clones from almost every angle. The young Hyuga girl could tell this much by the amount of now molten-hot slag that peppered the ground all around the circle of ten clones, burning red hot like lava against the backdrop of the concrete of the bridge. Each of the needles had been so incredibly seared the moment they had broken through the skin of one of the clones that they were melted all the way through, leaving behind only Naruto's still unmoving form amidst a potential wildfire of his own creation.

"I-impossible!" Haku said, completely astounded at what she had seen.

"_**Fire melts steel. Steel, meet fire.**_" Naruto said almost cheerfully as he sort of chuckled at his own juvenile humor. Hinata smiled inwardly as she watched him. With how he had been changing almost drastically into someone more mature and… and simply more adult than the boy she had silently watched everyday back in the Academy, a part of her was happy to see that he was still deep down the same knuckleheaded ninja that had defaced the entire Academy with lewd pictures of what Iruka-sensei might of looked like as a naked girl taped up throughout the grounds a year earlier with Kiba. It was good to see that he could still act his own age instead of acting like a… like a true ninja all the time. 

However, a moment later his face dropped back to the same seriousness it had held when he first summoned his beasts. "_**Now, surrender.**_"

"I will not! I am Zabuza's weapon and I strike down what he commands me to."

"_**Then you leave me no choice… Just remember I gave you a chance. Katon.**_" Katon, fire release; Haku could not help but feel that such a word was dead on for what she was seeing now as she watched from a second-level mirror to her prey's right side. The moment that the blonde-headed shinobi she had told her secrets to had spoken that single solitary word, they had done something she was not prepared for in a million years. Each one of the ashen nine had opened up their mouths, revealing a set of bloodthirsty fangs blackened by soot and ash. As they opened their maws, red hot fires had poured from their devil-like jaws like a ripple of destruction that traveled outwards from where it all gathered together. Had she not leapt from the mirror she had been standing in when he spoke and transported into the one directly above him, she knew that there was no way she could have survived an attack of that magnitude. The nine separate spheres of red flames tore through the lowest level of mirrors like tissue paper; the ice she had conjured dissipated instantly as though it were simple water and this scared the living hell out of her. No one that she had fought so far had managed to fully destroy her ice, because of her kekkai genkai the ice could stand up to almost anything; yet these… these monsters had utterly demolished them in a mere second.

A moment after the clones opened their twisted, ash-gray lips they closed them again, the flares dying away instantly with them. It was a truly horrifying sight to see.

"_**Haku, I know you're still alive because there are still mirrors standing so I'm giving you one last chance to get out while you still can. You can't win.**_" Hinata watched wordlessly as the clones broke their circle around the kitsune and took up positions behind him. Instead of a prepubescent boy that liked to prank the Academy instructors standing there, something was unmistakably different about him and it thrilled and excited her. His eyes were once again a shade of blood red but they had lost the intensity and terror that had rested in them; Naruto looked purely serene despite the extremely destructive force he had just created. The Kyuubi child's whiskers and jaw were finely defined and the fangs on the sides of his mouth were displayed prominently as he stared at one of the mirrors. Around him, a thin layer of red chakra swirled, making it appear as the orange jumpsuit he was wearing was actually red. To her, as he stood against the backdrop of the ash-skinned demons he had created, he looked almost like some sort of… divinity. "_**You know you can't.**_"

(I)

From the corner of her eye, Anko watched her inhuman student's battle with pure amazement. Because of the fact that no one, not the Sandaime Hokage or Jiraiya or anyone else, really knew much about the Kyuubi other than the fact it had been immensely powerful and it was the Queen of the Bijuu, they honestly did not know what to predict concerning Naruto's own personal strength. All she could do was sit back and just watch as he grew into a power no one would see coming.

A swift and deadly swing of Zabuza's zanbatō only inches over where her head had been a second earlier brought her mind back to her own fight as she rolled down to the ground to avoid being carved up. The swordsman had slowly been becoming increasingly desperate in his attack strategy as she and her pet continued to pressure him. Having to fight on two fronts against two completely 

different types of enemies was slowly wearing him down and she knew it wouldn't be long before she had him. She just had to keep holding on.

"So what was that about Naruto being killed?" Anko taunted openly as she quickly launched one of the shuriken in her sleeves at Zabuza. Behind him, Bara was slithering rapidly across the concrete bridge as she prepared to lunge again.

The butcher from Kiri just glared at her as he readied himself, his dark eyes glowing with pure and untamed anger like that of a wild beast. Panting heavily as he did so, the mist murderer swung his sword in a wide arc in front of him, deflecting her knife out of the way rapidly before he leapt out of range of Bara's fangs. Twisting in the air like a top, Zabuza spun around with his blade still in hand as he tried to slash down at her from midair. Having been prepared this time, Anko easily rolled to her left to avoid the massive cleaver and then planted her foot squarely against the side of the sword. From the force of her kick, Zabuza lost his grip on his weapon for the briefest of instants as he fell away from her but he quickly regained his balance and grabbed the blade again.

(I)

Naruto just stood there silently for a moment, the searing heat-wave from the nine behind him radiating off his skin as he waited for the young assassin's reply.

It came soon enough as Haku silently dropped from the mirror she had been hiding within, dropping to the ground without so much as a twitch through her body like a well-trained gymnast. As she landed, Naruto could finally smell her scent entirely instead of it being masked behind the indistinguishable odor of salt water. As much as Hinata's or Anko-sensei's individual aromas, Haku had a distinctly feminine fragrance to her that reminded him of hot green tea like his mom would sometimes make. However, it had been diluted and somewhat masked by the almost nauseating odor of dried blood, something that clung to her like a bad spirit as a reflection of the kind of life she had lived. As he was still coming to terms with his heightened senses and still learning more about just what he was becoming, it was still surprising to him to be able to almost taste the… the bouquet of peaceful tea and bloody murder that was emanating from her.

She stared at him for a moment before finally speaking, her voice still sounding rather hollow from behind the porcelain mask she wore. "I am sorry… but you and I both know that I cannot surrender without Zabuza."

"I'm not going to offer again." Naruto's voice was almost sad as he spoke that surefire omen that, even if his clones did not kill her, she would not be able to walk away from this battle unscarred if she turned away his chance for mercy. His eyes slowly faded from their intense crimson back to a more _human_ shade of blue as he stared her down, his body easing up only slightly as he prepared for what might be their final exchange. Deep inside of him, the boy silently prayed that she was smart enough to just get out and leave Tazuna be because he really didn't want to have to hurt someone like her. It was one thing to end the life of a pair of sick bastards who wanted to hurt his friends in the worst possible way but to do something like what he did to them to a girl who had just been dealt a really shitty hand by whoever saw fit to run this universe. She didn't honestly deserve to be hurt or killed, despite the fact she was his enemy. So, he pleaded with her one last time to take his offer. "Please, just give up."

Watching the battle from the sidelines where she and Kaname still stood in front of Tazuna, Hinata could not help but feel even more admiration for Naruto as he stared down his opponent. She had seen him do… extraordinary things in the last two weeks since they had become teammates but this was something entirely different. He was showing care for someone's well-being and safety despite the fact had never even really met them. It was something that made her hold the kitsune child in an even greater level of regard than she already did. To her, he was proving more and more every day that he truly was something greater than a mere human.

Turning her attention to the Mist shinobi, Hinata patiently awaited her reply as well. However, Haku did not get the chance to answer this time.

Instead the only sound that was heard was metal hitting wood as a ship docked beneath them coupled with a loud and painful grunt from where Anko and Zabuza were dueling. Haku's eyes darted over immediately to her master as she heard him.

"Zabuza? ZABUZA!" Haku screamed as she broke away from Naruto and ran over to her master. The kitsune followed her frantic sprint with his eyes, the sight of Zabuza's body immediately a rather dark sight as it greeted his eyes. Instead of the powerful swordsman that instilled fears in a thousand different shinobi across the world, there was nothing more than a masked victim bleeding out on the hard concrete of the bridge. He was laying on his back with a single kunai stuck in his chest and snake bites running up and down his uncovered arms. Anko was just standing over him with a look of cold, calculating apathy as the snake that had bitten him curled up around her chest and body like a ridiculously long vine that was growing around her. Even to Naruto, who was slowly becoming more and more accustomed to the idea of having to take an opponent's life to win, her look seemed to be something purely inhuman… something purely monstrous.

"Right now, Zabuza, you are probably wondering what that dull burning sensation is in the pit of your stomach that is slowly creeping upward." Anko's words were darkly icy as she stared down at his body. Haku had lifted his head up and placed it upon her lap, gazing down at the swordsman from behind her mask. Zabuza was breathing heavily, each gasp labored and sounding almost agonizing to Naruto, a sign of his approaching demise. "Like other Kyodaija, Bara is a poisonous snake and what you are feeling are the effects of her venom. However, instead of simply poisoning you, what her venom does is slowly burn the inside of your throat as it works its way down your windpipe. Soon, your windpipe will be completely cracked and burned while the venom flows into your lungs and destroys them completely. Then, you will die."

"ZABUZA!" Haku was screaming as she watched her master, her ears just barely registering what Anko was saying.

Naruto's eyes were wide with an almost child-like shock as he looked upon the dying shinobi. The stench of blood and puke was emanating from him almost overpoweringly, making the kitsune boy feel nauseous as it filled his nostrils fully. All around them, the mist that Zabuza had conjured earlier was finally starting to fade as the Mist swordsman slowly began to lose his control over it, slowly revealing more and more of the seemingly endless stretch of concrete and steel back to the village they had all come from.

"Anko sensei?" The fox asked almost of sadness for what he was seeing, his eyes moving from Zabuza's pain-wrecked body to his emotionless instructor. She just turned to look at him without a word, her eyes revealing a 

side of her that he had not expected to see, a cold and battle-hardened side with eyes like those of a serpent. It was as if he were staring directly into the slit irises of her pet snake as the young instructor returned his gaze wordlessly for only a moment. However, she soon turned her attention back to her dying prey instead of him.

"Ha…ku…" Zabuza was choking now, gasping for breath as he slowly began to choke on his own fluids.

From behind the group, near the edge of the bridge, there came a distinctive clang of footsteps over metal that interrupted Zabuza's last few words as the man behind all the carnage stepped out onto the bridge. All heads whipped around to try and find out who it was that was coming towards them but the figure was still obscured by the mist. Yet, even without seeing the man dressed in the black suit, Naruto knew who it was immediately. He could hear the pompous steps and smell the almost overwhelming stench of corrupted wealth and power upon the small man before he made out the man's figure through the slowly fading mist. Once Gato finally cleared the fog, all Naruto could do was be amazed that such a miniscule little worm was responsible for all the pain and misery of this entire village, responsible for the murders of dozens or maybe even hundreds of men and yet the man wore a placid and almost pleasant smile on his face that could make a Shinigami cringe. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of thin, wireframe sunglasses that just made him look even more like a pompous slug than a man. Wearing a pressed black suit of fine fabric with a black leather-wrapped katana at his waist, Naruto could tell the man loved to flaunt his ill gotten wealth and probably thought himself to be some sort of warrior even though he was nothing more than a worthless cretin.

"Well what do we have here? A half-rate ninja from the Land of Fire who likes to interfere with my plans and three annoying little kids who just don't seem to understand their place in the world…"

Naruto felt his blood boil and his chakra spike as he listened to the slug's words. Behind him, a small army of mercenaries and thugs were slowly gathering, all of them blissfully overconfident in their own abilities. He knew the man to be Gato even without him saying so simply by the way he carried himself, like the bastard had such a value in the world whereas everyone else existed to serve his purposes. Curling his lips up to bear the edges of his fangs, the kitsune boy was already looking forward to making him suffer for all the pain he had caused. And if those men tried to get in Naruto's way, they would suffer the same fate as their boss for their involvement with him. "Zabuza, you disappoint me greatly; I would have thought you would be capable of taking care of such a small nuisance but apparently I was mistaken… I guess it's all for the best though."

The smile never leaving his face, the man peered down from Zabuza's soon-to-be lifeless form and to the swordsman's companion as though he were measuring her up.

"Gato, you bastard! You're going to suffer for all you've done to the village!" Tazuna spat these simple words, his hands clenching into two balled-up fists as he stared down the cretin of a crime boss with steeled eyes. Naruto could feel the righteous indignation burning from the bridge builder without even turning to look at him and could smell the sheer hatred directed by everyone in their group towards Gato. Even with the army that the mob-style corporation magnate had brought with him, the fox knew that Gato would not be walking away from this bridge even if they had to grow through each and every thug to do so.

"Tazuna, I have to admit you have been an annoying little thorn in my side for far too long." Gato sounded as smooth as silk as he spoke. However, his eyes never left Zabuza and Haku as though he were far more interested in the two hired assassins than the bridge builder or Team Nine. "For that, I will deal with you soon enough. However, before I do I have some unfinished business to deal with. Zabuza, it's a shame you have to die right now because I was going to take a large amount of pleasure in killing you personally for all your relentless failure. After all your disrespect to me, I was going to let you die a slow and agonizing death because, after all, no one would care if I killed a pair of rogue ninja. In fact, as long as they never found out about your employment to me, the rest of the ninja in Kirigakure would probably view me as a trusted friend for eliminating you permanently. Did you really expect me to ever pay you or your fee?"

"You son of a bitch!" Haku roared, preparing to stand up. However, before she could rush off and get the revenge that she and her master so rightfully deserved for this betrayal, Zabuza's hand shot up to her hand to stop her.

"St…and me… up…" Zabuza commanded, sounding sicker and sicker with every syllable that he spoke. Pulling her porcelain mask off for the first time in front of Team Nine, Haku stared directly at her master with a pleading gaze as she knelt at his side. Naruto was surprised by how young she really was; he knew she was a teenager but she looked like she was only a few years older than him or Hinata. Her face was pale like that of a phantom but with a sad and refined grace to it, a kind of calm and peace that the lethality of her life did not portray. For some reason, the look on her face reminded him of Hinata as though looking at her was like seeing what she might look like three years down the road.

After a moment, Haku finally agreed to his demand and helped Zabuza shakily stand to his feet. Even with Bara's poison working its way through his system causing him to slowly suffocate and die, the steeled swordsman's eyes still burned with a fiery anger that just emanated from him like pure chakra. Grabbing his Zanbatō from the ground, he unsteadily used it as a walking stick as he began to slowly hobble his way toward Gato. Haku stood up as though she was going to follow him but he simply held his hand up to stop her, as though he was silently telling her that this was his battle and his opportunity for revenge considering Gato's unmerited betrayal. Across from him, the crime lord just smiled on with his sickening little smile as though he were completely unafraid of Zabuza even despite all the people man had fought and killed in his short life. Watching him slowly walk across the stretch of empty concrete toward Gato, Naruto felt a cool shiver run up his spine as he felt what remained of Zabuza's chakra spike up; he at least had some fight left in him before he died.

"G-Gato, no… one st…stabs me in the… back." He was about forty feet away when the Demon of the Hidden Mist finally spoke again. Continuing his slow dirge of a march toward the crime boss, Zabuza forced himself to stand up straight and walk without his sword as a crutch, holding it back over his shoulder as though he were preparing to swing.

"Oh Zabuza, my stupid little assassin; just what do you think you can do about it? You can hardly stand and it looks like you'll just be another corpse in a few minutes so you must know that you have no chance of beating back my guards to get to me." Every time Gato opened his mouth and spoke in that damn sickeningly silky voice of his Naruto wanted to end him that much more; no one who had caused as much suffering as he had merited the right to talk with such an ease. "If it's a quicker death you're wanting though, I'll be more than willing to oblige you. I swear you won't suffer much more; all you have to is ask me. Just go ahead and get down on your knees and say 'Gato, please end my pain' and I'll take care of you so you don't have to suffer any longer."

Zabuza stopped walking, now only about ten feet away from Gato who was standing in front of his guards with that same sadistic smile on his worm-like face. Despite how far he had made it already, the swordsman knew he would die very soon. It was getting harder and harder for him to draw a single breath as his lungs were slowly being destroyed with each and every gasp he made. He knew he would die surely so why bother dying in such pain, why not take up Gato's offer and just die? Thus with dark and hate-filled look burning in his eyes, Zabuza slowly sank to his knees as he stared down the crime lord.

"Gato… please… end… my p…pain." He breathed almost noiselessly, the dark glimmer never once leaving his face.

"My, what a good little dog you are, Zabuza. And here I thought you would never learn to do what's best for you." Gato stepped away from his guards with a bold look on his face, so completely sure of his own victory over the ninja he had betrayed. When he was only a foot away from Zabuza, he drew the katana he had tied to his waist and held it over his head as he prepared to kill the true swordsman as he said he would.

Naruto couldn't help but smirk a little at what he saw; it was good to see that the rich and powerful were just as stupid as everyone else sometimes. He had to fight back the urge to chuckle as he watched Zabuza leap up from where he knelt, using the very last bit of his strength to get off the ground and then swing his Zanbatō around, taking the vile magnate's head with it. As he collapsed to the ground, drained of the last ounce of life by his one final act of vengeance, the swordsman just stared at Gato's headless body as it fell limply to the ground. The crime lord was dead.

"He's killed the boss! He's killed the fucking boss!"

"Anko-sensei?" Naruto asked, not even turning to face his instructor as his hands shot into that classic cross-shape in front of his chest.

"Do what you have to, Naruto." Anko replied coldly, turning back towards Kaname, Hinata and Tazuna.

Haku looked back as she spoke, her eyes immediately illuminating with understanding of what he was about to do. These men, they were responsible for sending her and her master on this mission which meant to her that they were responsible for Zabuza's unwarranted death. To naruto, Team Nine's mission wasn't over as long as the villagers and Tazuna in particular were still in danger and Gato's men just being around would continue to put them in danger. Her hands quickly performing signs of their own, Haku just stood up fully to join him.

"Tajuu: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

* * *

Author's Note: Well there you go. I'm finally done with this chapter a week after I thought I would be. You can thank writer's block combined with a mixture of putting in my time at work and a little bit of distraction thanks to my 360 for the delays. Anyways, I've already begun working on the next chapter, mostly in my head but with some of the ideas I've got already down on my hard drive. Expect it up probably within two to three weeks at the most, less if I get some serious free time to myself. Hope you enjoyed this one meanwhile. Review honestly and I'll see you all next time. Peace.


	11. Chapter 10: Catching Up

Author's Note: Hey everybody, I'm back. Now that I'm finally finished with the Land of Waves saga, I can go ahead and really start to do what I've wanted to do with this story since before I put the prologue. Over the next few chapters the story is going to be branching further and further away from canon with only certain major events remaining in the mix. This is mainly because when I first planned out this story, I really dove into the ideas of what could happen thanks to it being AU. That being said, on to a single review question, submitted by TCM (I'm not using your full screen name but you should know who you are), the pairing is NaruHina. Now to those of you who read the last chapter (or any of the ones so far for that matter): thanks as always. Well now, on to chapter ten.

"I…" indicates speech.

"_I…" _indicates inner thought.

"_**I…" **_indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

* * *

Chapter 10: Catching Up

* * *

_The Top of Mt. Hokage_

_8:00 a.m._

He stared out over the village, the familiar sights and sounds of a place he had given up long ago all the sudden overwhelming his ancient mind as he gazed. All throughout the air around him, he could hear the movements and motions of the peaceful villagers of Konohagakure no Sato as they went about their lives, completely unaware of the dogs of war that would soon be unleashed upon them. These people were quiet, content, and even blissful; but as they say, ignorance is bliss.

"Zetsumei-sensei; not to put an end to your little daze out moment, but are we going to finally go down into the village or are you going to stand there and reminisce all day? I'd really like to see the inside of an inn before nightfall possibly," Spoke one of the three genin behind him, a mischievous and sarcastic little preteen girl with short-cropped and wildly vibrant orange hair and sapphire blue eyes.

Turning to face the three preteen orphans that he had been raising as his own and training as shinobi for the better part of eight years each, the elderly man smiled with a wizened aged grin that reflected the numerous years he had seen. The man was old both physically and mentally; older than even his wrinkled and warmly smiling face did justice to. Hidden behind the veil of the time-worn creases that covered his face was a soul that had seen more conflict and strife in his seventy long years than most villages saw in an era. His eyes were a deep and wondrous shade of red irises without any visible pupils that seemed to radiate with a calm intensity that emanated into the area around him. The man's gray mane was pulled back into a short-cropped top knot and faded gray as was the little crowd of whiskers that protruded from his unshaven chin. Yet even despite his obviously old appearance, the man still seemed to just exhale vigor and strength, as though he would never truly be worn down even until death.

"It has been quite some time since I have been back this way, Yue. Much has changed since then." He replied calmly as he adjusted the worn white jacket that covered most of his back. Wearing a pair of black pants coupled with a long-sleeve fishnet shirt under an unmarked white and black ninja vest, the man looked like just another harmless foreign shinobi which was exactly what he wanted. Coupled with the worn Kirigakure headband he had tied over his forehead and the illusion was complete. To the outside world, he and his team appeared to be another team from Kiri but in reality they bore allegiance to no land or people. However, because of the sheer fact that he had to have a village's backing to have his genin join in the exams, if they wanted to trace his connections all they would learn was that he apparently was a shinobi working for a small village near the very northeast of the Land of Waves. The beauty of it all was the village he worked for never existed, except for on a set of falsified documents that he had set up into the Water Daimyo's village registry. "But you are right, my children; we do need to get down to the village if I am going to register you three for the exams. Akano, Satsuyo, Yue; I trust you three are fully prepared for what you will face during the tests."

Akano, the only male in the group besides their old sensei, spoke up first as he adjusted the Mist headband he had tied around his left bicep. "Master, are you really sure that everything is going to happen like you told us? I mean, it seems so placid down there…" His jade green eyes sparked with understandable caution as he spoke and pushed a strand of his long brown hair out of his face. The young boy was just barely the tallest of the group but by far the most mature of their little squadron, having a mind that worked like most competent ANBU investigators'. Wearing a pair of loose fitting green fatigues on his legs with a basic white shirt under a black jacket coupled with the hitai-ate of Kiri on his arm, he stood there calmly watching their sensei's reactions.

"I can guarantee you three that what you will see down there is going to be exactly what I told you. However, I want you all to remember your primary objective during the exams." He replied, watching each of them until his final student had a chance to talk.

"Sensei, what should we do if we happen to encounter either of them?" Satsuyo finally spoke up, her eyes bright as she watched the clear blue sky behind him. With the same pale lavender eyes and faded hair as the majority of the Hyuga clan, she looked like she was possibly one of their long lost daughters but the resemblance stopped there. Instead of a noble's robes and an intricate knowledge of what it meant to be bound by a life that belonged to the clan instead of the person, she was free in heart and spirit and wore clothing that reflected this little detail. Dressed in a long fishnet shirt under form-fitting white blouse along with a red skirt and the Kiri band that hung around her neck like a necklace, she seemed distinctly more cheerful than either of her adopted siblings.

"If you happen to get paired against them in the preliminary matches or in the tournament itself, use discretion and forfeit if you want to because I will not risk your safety going against opponents like that my children." He replied calmly, watching the smiles that rose on all their cheeks as he proved once again that he truly did view them as his own family and cared for their wellbeing instead of only his mission. It brought warmth to his heart as he really did wish only for their safety like any father would. "Now, I think it is time that we head down to the village. Once we get settled, you are all free to do as you wish while I go take care of what I must. However, please remember while you are out that the villagers and especially while you are among the ninja of this village must not be allowed to know your true purpose. Do not breathe a word of it to anyone while you are anywhere except when you are with me. Is that understood?"

"Hai, sensei!" They answered in unison.

"Good. Now let's go introduce ourselves to Konoha, my children." With that, they began the descent down the path leading into the village.

(I)

_The Uzumaki Family Apartment_

_8:10 a.m._

"'The normal creation of a shadow clone requires that the creator evenly distribute an amount of chakra into all created clones. As such, one can manipulate the form and abilities of said clones by manipulation of the chakra distribution when creating them, using more or less of the creator's chakra to modify the physical properties and/or talents of the clones.'" Naruto read aloud, pouring over more and more of the Shodaime's scroll as he studied up all he could on the shadow clone technique, completely alone in his and his mom's apartment since his mom was on another mission for ANBU at the moment. He was slowly becoming more accustomed to her being gone ever since she had gone back to the shinobi lifestyle; they were both ninja after all. And ever since Team Nine had returned from the Land of Waves a month and half ago, their days had been filled with nothing more than D-ranked missions and chakra control training exercises with Anko-sensei so it was starting to drive him insane. A part of him longed for a chance to really try out some of the ideas he had been cooking up in his mind regarding the First's jutsus ever since he had created his Kyuubi back upon the bridge. But as the chance of anything exciting happening soon was slim to none unless they got assigned another good mission, he was simply limited to experimenting in his free time and studying as much as he could. "If that's all true, then I might be able to…"

He quickly scribbled down another line of notes regarding his ideas for another new utilization of his shadow clones and then turned his attention back to the worn scroll. His mind was simply overflowing with ideas of what he could do with the Shodaime's knowledge and techniques. The man that had created all the techniques and jutsu he was currently pouring over truly had been a genius in his own right, a fully qualified Hokage in every right according to what he was reading. With all that was in the scroll, even the most challenged of Academy students could easily become a superb ninja just by studying the First's training methods and skills.

"The burning clones were useful back in Wave… but in a normal battle that might not be the case. If Kaname and Hinata had been in the dome with me, they could have been seriously burned just being around the clones so if I'm going to use them again, I have to really focus on how to scale down their power when necessary. I wonder if I could just pour less chakra into them to solve the problem… Or would that cause too big of a decrease in the fire inside of them to make them useless? Perhaps I can refocus the chakra instead of just using less…" Having been up for two hours already that morning, Naruto was already wide awake and just trying to get in as much of his own personal training before Kiba came by later on in the morning to mess around in the village for a while since Anko-sensei had given Team Nine the day off. "And if I can, I wonder what that would mean with my normal shadow clones? His notes say both the properties and talents so does that possibly mean changing their size instead of just strength? Damn there are just too many possibilities with this scroll…"

His brain was already swimming and he had only been studying over the scroll for only about fifteen minutes now. For the better part of the last month since they had gotten home, he had only studied the lowest levels of jutsu the scroll had to offer so he could get a better grasp on the First's style 

before he really began to pour into the information. Today was only his third day really studying the shadow clones and already it was giving him a headache.

"Oh well, might as well grab some breakfast before I have to get going." With that he stood up from the small table in his bedroom and took one quick glance in the mirror. Staring for a moment, he couldn't help but notice that it was getting to the point that, even when he was not using his 'other side', his eyes were starting to stay crimson for longer and longer periods of time and he had to force himself to get them to revert to the blue he had known for the better part of his life. The fangs that set in the center of his mouth were becoming more and more prominent with each passing day, making him look even less like the people of this village. Simply put, he knew that since he was starting to use what he had, he was starting to look like _her _and it excited him greatly.

(I)

_The Konoha Training Grounds_

_10:15 a.m._

"So you ready to do fight or what, mutt-boy?" Naruto taunted as he spread his feet apart and took his stance. The young kitsune boy was forcing himself to keep his chakra suppressed so that his eyes would remain a steady shade of blue while he was out with Kiba in the village. Even though that he trusted the young cub of the Inuzuka clan, he wasn't ready to out himself as the son of the queen of the Bijuu just yet. Among his own team, he was not going to let anyone else besides Hinata learn; he couldn't stop the Hokage from telling anyone but at the very least he could keep it contained in his own personal circles. So as he readied himself for a friendly little training match against his best friend, he was concentrating as best he could to stay human. "Or am I gonna have to stand here all day and just watch Akamaru scratch himself?"

"You hear that Akamaru? I think he's making fun of you." Kiba replied, glancing down to his furry little best friend who was scratching himself on the ground next to the Inuzuka boy. The puppy just yipped a quick response while staring down Naruto with an ironically happy ferocity in his eyes and Naruto had hung around with Kiba and Akamaru long enough to know that the little fur ball was ready to fight him at anytime if Kiba wanted to. The dog had a fighter's spirit, a rebellious strength in him that was a perfect match to the almost renegade and untamed attitude his master and companion always showed. After a moment, Kiba's lips curled up into a grin as he responded to his friend's bark. "Yeah, I think we need to teach him a lesson as well."

"Now we're talkin'." Naruto smirked as he pulled a kunai from the satchel on his belt and readied himself.

He and Kiba were standing out in the middle of the training grounds on the outskirts of Konoha, near the Hero's Memorial, and were about to spar with each other for the first time since they had left the Academy almost two months earlier. Sure the blonde had been back in the village for a month and a half since he and his team had returned from the Land of Waves but this was the first time he had really had any time for his friends in between missions or training sessions with his team and the few times he and Hinata had walked around Konoha. Since their return from Tazuna's village, he had spent a few quiet nights watching the sky with her while his mother was gone working a mission for ANBU but that was it. Together they would spend hours watching the moon from atop Mt. Hokage, looking out at the village and the lands beyond as the world fell asleep and left them to enjoy each other's company for at 

least a little while. From the fear that Naruto had about what might happen to her if it was discovered that she was slowly becoming involved with something like him to her own concerns about her family and their potential reactions, those few hours every now and then were all they could afford. However, it was everything he wanted just to lie out under the trees atop the mountain and watch the clear night skies while she lay next to him. So with a small smile rising to his face as he thought about her and their few nights together, he just turned his focus back to his best friend and their little match.

"Go Akamaru!" Kiba roared as he launched three shuriken at Naruto.

Immediately stepping to the side while he spun around, he used a little move he had picked up on by watching Hinata's Juken style to deflect the shuriken with his knife. Forcing the chakra into his feet like a coiled spring, he leapt up into the air as high as he could and landed on a tree branch about twenty feet off the ground. Akamaru was hot on his trail, leaping up the few branches that stuck out like stairs as he chased the fox boy up the tree like some sort of ridiculously funny rabid gray squirrel. Naruto nimbly jumped from one branch to another, gathering a very little bit of chakra as he quickly went through a set of hand signs.

"Doton: Doryuu Taiga." The Kyuubi yelled as he flipped wildly off of the branch he landed on and dove back down toward the ground, holding his hands out in front of him as he came down. As soon as he touched the earth, he slapped both of his palms onto the ground, a seal appearing across the grass covered dirt as he brought his hands down against it. Without even taking the time to look up, he just smirked and began to chuckle.

"Wha-What the hell?!" Kiba shouted from where he now stood trapped in a four-foot deep mud whirlpool. Finally standing up straight to look at his best friend, Naruto fought back the urge not to just laugh outright at the marvelously hilarious results of one of the new jutsu he had been learning from the Shodai Hokage's scroll. Its name was the earth river technique, a unique jutsu that allowed its user to turn the ground beneath an opponent from a solid platform into a swift-flowing stream of mud and water that washed them away. Although it was only a C-ranked jutsu unlike the shadow clone technique, since the First had considered it worthy of writing down he definitely considered it worth learning. And although the First wrote that it was to be used on a hill, the effects that came from him using it on flat ground turned out to be just as useful. "Get me outta here now! Naruto, you bastard, get me the hell outta here!"

"Hah, sorry man!" Naruto said, reaching his hand out to pull his young friend from the spinning pit of muck and mud. Gripping Kiba's outstretched arm with all his might, he yanked the young dog trainer from the whirlpool only to laugh harder as the Inuzuka boy was now covered in a thick layer of dirt and mud that extended up to his neck.

"Damnit whiskers! Look at this crap; my mom's gonna kill me now! You coulda just used a water clone and fought me like normal but _nooo…_ You had to use the… the mud bath jutsu and completely **cover** me in this… this crap!" Kiba shouted, pulling off his thick jacket to reveal a mostly clean black shirt underneath. The lower half of his body, however, was completely and utterly soaked through with dark brown sludge, making him look as though he were part man and part mud beast. This of course made Naruto laugh even harder until he was doubled on the ground clutching his sides and gasping for air. After a moment though, Kiba realized just how ridiculous he now looked and began to laugh too. The two of them just sat there on the ground for a while laughing as they rested and let the pressures of the ninja world wash away and just acted like kids. Finally though, they both stopped laughing and regained their composure once again, Kiba speaking first. "Just what the hell kind of a technique was that anyways?"

"Earth Release: Earth Flow River. It's a nifty little jutsu that I picked up from the scroll my Grandpa gave me back after we graduated and became genin two months ago. Ever since my team and I got back from the mission we had a few weeks ago, I've been studying up on a few new jutsu to see what I could really learn from it." Naruto replied, shrugging as he took the time to explain all that he had learned from the First's scroll over the earth flow technique while they began to walk back toward the village.

(I)

_Ichiraku Ramen_

_11:30 a.m._

"Y'know, something tells me your mother your mom is going to have that big old wolf Kuromaru chasing you through Konoha by the end of the day once she sees that mess you left back at the Inuzuka compound." Naruto said as he merrily slurped on the bowl of ramen in front of him. It was his third bowl already and he was knocking each noodle like he hadn't eaten a single bite for the last month, a broad and carefree smile on his whiskered face as he put away another huge mouthful. A little more than thirty minutes earlier, the two young genin had left the Inuzuka manor after Kiba changed from the mud-caked clothing into a simple fishnet shirt underneath a black tee with his clan's logo on the back and a loose pair of gray pants. Akamaru was sitting atop his Kiba's head, wagging his tail cheerfully as he ate a little bit of beef from his partner's bowl. "I mean seriously, did'cha have to track mud through the _entire_ house or was that just for laughs because I… I gotta be honest; your mother is going to probably kill us both, mutt."

"And this coming from the kid who decided it'd be a _good idea_ to use a jutsu which put me into a mud-filled washing machine!" Kiba replied with a sarcastic laugh. "But yeah I guess it wasn't really that smart to leave my prints behind. But hey, at least I was smart enough to take the trashed clothes off before walking through my room. So, you haven't told me yet; how did that mission over in the Land of Waves end anyways?"

Since they had sat down at the small little booth, the young kitsune had been telling his best friend most of the details about Team Nine's mission and Tazuna but had been selectively editing parts of the story so that he didn't accidentally tell Kiba anything about what was happening inside of him. "Well after Zabuza died, all that was left out of Gato's camp was a bunch of half-rate thugs that couldn't last five minutes against a real shinobi team. It was kind of funny actually because Anko-sensei just walked up and performed an interesting kind of clone jutsu and scared them all off of the bridge because she conjured close to a hundred clones of her own and then just stared them down. They jumped over the edge and back into their boats so fast that at least twenty of them missed and landed into the water." He answered, lying about the fact that it was actually he that had created the 'interesting kind' of clones that had fought off the thugs that Gato had hired to enforce his mafioso tactics. Together with the young assassin from the Mist, Naruto had effectively and permanently ended any threat from Gato's organization to Tazuna's village.

"And what happened afterwards?" Kiba asked, stretching his arms for a moment as he scratched Akamaru's back from where the dog laid atop his head.

"Well we came home two days later and we've been back to the D-rank line ever since. But it's kind of cool that old man Tazuna actually decided to name the bridge after us. He named it the Great Nine Bridge because of our squad." He replied coolly.

"But what happened to Tazuna, Haku and the village?"

"Well Haku actually decided to stay in the village. With Zabuza gone, she really didn't have much of a reason to keep killing people because he was the one with all the contacts for the hits. On Anko-sensei's advice, Tazuna hired her as a personal bodyguard for the village so I'm pretty sure she's just gonna stay there for a while, y'know?"

"So was there anything going on… between Haku… and…" Kiba gestured with his hands kind of crazily as he tried to ask whether or not anything happened between him and the girl that had tried to kill them.

"No, nothing happened between us! God get your head outta the gutter for once!"

"Well not to add insult to your complete lack of luck with any girl ever born but I'm getting to spend plenty of time with a beautiful pink-haired kunoichi that could not help but love every part of me." Kiba taunted, trying to get any sort of rise out of his best friend. The boy had a mischievous smile plastered all over his face but it quickly faltered a moment later once he realized that Naruto seemed almost entirely uninterested at Kiba's remark. "Come on man, don't you wanna hear about all that Sakura, Sasuke and I do together now that we're a team? I may hate that arrogant bastard but you really wouldn't _believe_ what we've done."

"I honestly couldn't care less about what you _do_ with _Sasuke_ though I think Iruka-sensei would advise you two against starting a serious relationship until you're both a little older. And of course, please remember that you should both try to adopt because you can't have a child with another guy. I mean the laws of nature proved that can happen already so don't hold your breath, dog-boy." He finally replied after a second, a sly smirk rising on his face as he retorted; meanwhile, Kiba just glared at him angrily because of his joke. "…Besides… I think I've moved on from my Sakura crush now."

"What?! When the hell did this happen?"

"It just kind of did." He responded kind of shyly. "I've been thinking a lot lately and it's not like she really even ever noticed me so I decided that I moved on and… I don't know; I've just been doing a lot of thinking."

"So then what's her name?" Kiba replied, scratching Akamaru's head as he turned on the stool to fully face his fox-born comrade with a serious look in his eyes. Though Naruto was focusing to make sure he was not displaying any outward characteristics of his birth, he was concentrating well enough that he could just barely hear Kiba begin to sniff the air as he waited for his friend's response to the question. It kind of surprised him to know that the Team Seven genin was paying that much attention but, with how he had responded to Kiba's remark about Sakura, it was to be expected that the dog boy wouldn't let this go that easily. "If you've really given up on trying to ever get anywhere with the pink-haired chairwoman of Sasuke's fanclub then you must have been really up to some interesting work since the last time we hung out. So what's the deal?"

Over the last month and a half since he had returned from the Land of Wave, he had been spending more and more time together with Hinata late at night whenever he had time to sneak out of his mom's apartment high above the city. Sticking to the rooftops, he would run silently above the streets of Konoha until he reached the Hyuga manor and reached her. From there, they would take backroads and alleyways until they were at the back of the Hokage residence and then follow a small path up to the top of the mountain. There was a tiny clearing in the forest atop Mount Hokage that allowed them to see the open sky while still being surrounded by a fair amount of trees in case any patrolling jonin were around. For hours on end they sat up there, watching the moon and just talking about who they both were, getting to truly know one another. Naruto didn't think he could really describe what it was like lying atop the mountain with her to him in a way that Kiba could understand just yet but there was something simply peaceful… something simply wonderful about being able to look down at the village from that high. It was as though they were… were king and queen and Konoha was their dominion far below.

"Y'know what, I'll tell you later." He answered after a moment.

Kiba simply shrugged. "Oh well, your choice. But just so you know, from the smell of your pheromones right now it's really easy to tell you're hiding something big, blondie. But I guess I'll let you just hang on this secret for now." Atop his head, Akamaru just yipped something that only Kiba could understand to his young master, a small smile rising on the Inuzuka boy's face as he listened to the small gray puppy. "You're right, Akamaru. He really _has _begun to smell an awful lot like her."

Naruto simply remained silent as he watched his friend's reaction.

"Fine. I'll shut up."

"Thanks, I think." The kitsune finally retorted, once again turning to the bowl that was setting in front of him.

"... So has your sensei told you and your team yet?" Kiba asked after a moment. "About the exams, I mean."

"What exam?" Those simple words piqued Naruto's interest immediately. He had not heard a thing about any tests or any new missions besides the ridiculously boring chores they were doing on an almost daily basis ever since they had gotten back from protecting Tazuna. All they had done was capture lost pets, weed out newly planted gardens and deliver supplies to various people all throughout Konoha and, to put it as simply as possible, it was boring the young blonde out of his skull. Even with his… other side becoming more and more active each and every day and improving his senses and skills, he still felt like he was losing a sort of edge by doing such meaningless tasks. It was dulling him down instead of really preparing him for the kind of lives chunin, jonin, and even the Hokage himself lived. And quite frankly, if he ever _really_ wanted to become the Mizukage, he was going to have to damn well be the best.

"The Chunin Exams. Kakashi-sensei told Sasuke, Sakura, and me that the exams are starting next week and that he's entered Team Seven because he thinks we're actually already ready to become chunin… even though we haven't really done anything as special as your mission with Tazuna yet. And from what he told us, we weren't the only rookie genin team that's been entered." Kiba answered, drawing even more of Naruto's interest with each word that he spoke. If there was really a chance that he and his squad could make it to the next shinobi ranking this quickly out of the Academy, they had to take it because it meant they would no longer be assigned the kind of boring grunt work they had been doing since they got back from the Land of Wave. They could actually be completing real ninja missions, ones that involved protection of a client or infiltration of an enemy empire or anything else really exciting. His mind was already racing with all the possibilities. "Now this is what you really wanna know; Kakashi-sensei said that, in addition to him entering us, both of the instructors for Team Nine and Team Ten have entered their squads. That means that you and your team; me, Sasuke, and Sakura; Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru are all going to be competing in the exams. We're gonna be chunin, whiskers!"

"Hell yes!" Naruto roared cheerfully, leaping up from his seat. Before Kiba could even stand up, he had already pulled a few ryou for both Kiba's and his food from his green-frog wallet and placed it on bar in front of him. "Thanks, Teuchi! Tell Ayame I said hi!"

"W-wait, Naruto, where the heck are you goin'?" Kiba asked, almost dumbfounded at his friend's sudden urge to bolt from the small ramen bar like a recently freed jackrabbit.

"To tell Kaname and Hinata! If we're going to be in the chunin exams, we've gotta be ready and I've got to get back to my training right now! I'll see ya soon man and tell your mom I'm sorry about the mess!" He finished with a pumped up grin before turning away with a simple wave. Focusing all the chakra he could into the soles of his feet, Naruto felt his body become light and almost weightless for a moment as he pushed down against the ground. A split second later, he released all the pent up energy and leapt up into the air and across the crowded street, running clear up the side of the building on all fours as soon as he touched it until he flipped up onto the roof. Without even turning around to face the dumbstruck crowd behind him, he just took off across the rooftops of Konohagakure no Sato, headed for the Hyuga compound with a beaming smile on his face.

"Hmm… There is something different about that boy lately." Kiba turned his head at the sound of old man Teuchi's voice behind him. The cook was standing behind his counter, staring up intently at the spot where Naruto had touched down on the rooftop across the street with his arms folded over his chest. There was a look of calm mixed with what Kiba could only make out as suspicion plastered all over his old and wrinkled face.

"That's Naruto for you. He's never been one to care about what people would consider normal by any means. I guess it's what makes him a great ninja." Kiba replied as he too stood up from the bar. As Akamaru jumped down from his head to walk beside his master, the young dog trainer just waved goodbye to their favorite bartender and walked out into the street as well. "Thanks for the ramen, Mr. Teuchi."

"Come again and I'll cook you a great bowl!" Teuchi roared happily before Kiba was out of earshot, his face quickly returning to its suspicious grimace as soon as he was sure that the Inuzuka clansman was fully gone. With no customers in his little booth, he silently whispered to himself, still staring at the spot where Naruto had landed on the roof. "He… It's almost like the woman who used to come here… but…"

(I)

"So how many teams does that make competing this year, ?" The Sandaime asked as he blew another puff of bluish white smoke from the pipe that sat upon his lips. Behind him, the sun was quickly setting over Konoha as the sixth to last day before the Chunin Exams drew to a close. Five days from now, genin from all over the great Lands would be tested physically, mentally, and emotionally to see if they were worthy of being promoted to the ranks of chunin. For some, preparation for this test had taken years as they studied and trained as best as they could. But for others however, like the rookie genin that Kakashi, Anko, and his own son Asuma had entered into the competition.

"Grand total, there are close to thirty teams participating in the examinations, Lord Hokage." Replied his young assistant as she read over the report in her hands. The woman was a petite and short little redheaded shinobi that had earlier that week nearly resigned from her position after sending a grab-happy toad sannin through one of the windows of the Hokage's office before the Sandaime assured her it was alright.

"What can you tell me about them? Are there any interesting teams competing besides the ones from Konoha?" He asked with a genuine curiosity regarding the topic. He was very interested to see how his own sons and daughters would do against the rather large amount of foreign ninja that were involved in the exams this year, especially considering the fact that some of the ninja from Konoha were far from average.

"There are a few, like one of the teams from Suna. According to the roster we received, it consists of two of the Kazekage's sons Gaara and Kankuro as well as his daughter Temari."

"The son of the Kazekage, hmm… Any others?"

"Well there was one other team, a squadron from Kiri that seemed to be composed of all rookies based on their ages." The assistant answered.

"Go on."

"The only information we have is that it is comprised of three genin named Akano, Satsuyo and Yue Suné and is led by an old male jonin who we do not seem to have in any of our registries. According to the report, the man's name is Zetsumei and is actually the adoptive father of all three genin."

"Zetsumei you say?" Sarutobi replied as he blew out another puff of bluish smoke, taking a keen interest in such a curious little name. He knew he had heard the name before but was completely incapable of remembering just where it had come from. However, a part of him was sure he had heard it before and that was more than enough to keep his interest. Turning around to face the setting sun and look upon the village below him, he just waved his hand to dismiss the young assistant. "Keep me informed."

"As you command, Lord Hokage."

_'Where have I heard that name before?'_ He wondered silently as he stared out over the village.

* * *

Author's Note: It's 12:45 am on Thursday morning and I'm finally done with this chapter after what has been the biggest case of writer's block I've had since I began this story. Coupled with the fact I really suck at writing filler and this has been one big blah for the last few weeks. To anyone who was waiting for an update, sorry it's taken so long but you can thank my semester finals and a complete lack of ideas of how to write the filler for this chapter for that. Anyways, next chapter the exams begin so I'll be back soon and I hope you enjoyed this one. Review and tell me what you thought. Peace.


	12. Chapter 11: The First Exam

Author's Note: It's been a while since I updated because of the sheer fact that I've been grinding my character on World of Warcraft for the last couple of weeks since I started playing again. If any of you play and are on the realm Arathor, give me a shout out, my character's name is Psicozys. Anyways, now that the usual explanation is out of the way, some information about this chapter and the ones that will be following it: starting with this chapter the Chunin Exam arc will be the main focus of the story for the next 5-10 chapters depending on how each thing goes. Little bit of a heads up for anyone who cares: do not expect the events of the exams after this chapter to be canon because as I have said in my profile, the story will be branching off more and more from the anime or manga from this point on. Naruto will slowly become more and more powerful as of a result of his usage of the First Hokage's scroll combined with his own birthrights. Kitsune are supposed to be cunning and clever so he's going to become more and more intelligent as time passes. So it's not going to be traditional canon at all soon. But hell, where's the fun in tradition anyways, right? Now, on to the chapter!

"I…" indicates speech.

"_I…" _indicates inner thought.

"_**I…"**_ indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

* * *

Chapter 11: The First Exam

* * *

_The Konoha Training Ground_

_5 days before the exam, 7:45 a.m._

"Go ahead and ask; I already know that the blonde boy wonder over there blabbed all about it to both of you so just ask me what you want to and get it over with." Anko commanded with impatience clear as day in her voice as she stared at her three wide-eyed genin. She had intended to tell her team herself later on that afternoon after a rigorous training session to help her truly decide whether or not they were up to the challenges that would await them during the Chunin Exams. Sure she was confident that Naruto could easily survive and probably excel in the physical aspects of the exams but when it came to the mental portions of the tests, to the necessities of the team functioning as a true whole, well quite frankly they couldn't just rely on Naruto's 'foreign' heritage for everything. "I've got to whip you little piss-ants into shape so we haven't got all day for you three to stand around and blather on."

"So it's true then, Anko-sensei? You really have entered us in the Chunin Exams?" Kaname asked with what sounded like pure wonder in his voice.

"Nooo… I'm just going to be working your prepubescent asses off over the next five days for no reason at all." The young jonin replied sarcastically, her eyes narrowing considerably. Even being given such a backhanded reply, the faces of her team all lit up like the nighttime sky during Konoha's wondrous fireworks displays at the end of each year. Even though Naruto knew that they were going to be in the exams as he had already heard it from Kiba, he still couldn't help but simply beam alongside his fellow teammates at the thought of becoming a full-fledged chunin. Anko, though, did not seem to share in their wonderment but instead was solely focused on what she had to do to prepare them for 

what lay ahead. "Hinata, would you like to add in an unnecessarily stupid question as well or are we all going to shut up and get to work now?"

Hinata opened her mouth for a moment as though to speak but then closed it again. Instead, her eyes just shifted for the briefest of moments to the young kitsune that was standing next to her. As his body slowly became more and more animalistic, Naruto could sense more and more of what she was thinking just by the pheromones he could smell emanating from her body or the minutest of inflections in her voice at any given time. And because of that, he had slowly become more in tune with her over their nights together in the last two months. So without saying a word to confirm the question she was not sure if she should ask, he simply gave her the tiniest of nods and they both turned their attention back to their sensei.

"That's my girl. Now, let's get started." With that, Anko began to furiously attack all three of them.

(I)

_The Roof of the Uzumaki Family Apartment_

_The Night Before The Exam, 11:20 p.m._

"It's finally done!" Naruto exclaimed with a devious little smile as he pulled back the worn pair of goggles he had been wearing ever since he began his latest experiment. With his headband tied around his arm to keep his jacket sleeve from slipping down, the goggles were the only thing on his blonde head and had been shielding his eyes from the incredible brightness of his little toy. Standing in front of him like a tiny little flash of flame was a perfect recreation of one of the burning clones he had created back in Wave; the only difference was this one was only six inches tall. Staring up at him with the same empty shelled holes that had first appeared when he first made the Nine, the creature was identical to the other burning clones and stood there obediently while looking back up at its creator. If anyone had been watching him at that moment, they might have been amazed or even scared at the sight of it but to him it was nothing more than the result of his own hard work, a simple achievement for him to relish. "That means that the water and shadow clones aren't the only ones that can be changed up. And coupled with the Henge no Jutsu and the scrolls… Yes, it'll actually work!"

Ever since Kiba had told him that they were going to be in the exams, he had been training every spare hour of the day he had on the ideas he got from the Shodaime's scroll. He had used his shadow clones to do the same experiments at the same time so he could try out his ideas at a rate unheard of by normal means. The result? An army of his three different types of clones with the ability to change up their shape and size. His shadow and water clones were capable of acting independently, being able to think about how to react. Meanwhile, the burning ones were simple toys he could command like a small army. However, it still gave him a lot of options, especially considering the other things he had learned from the First Hokage. And coupled with the information in the scroll regarding the creation of written seals, he had figured out different ways to use the techniques. Within a minute, he was going to be able to show off the first thought he had had after changing up his shadow clone for the first time three days earlier.

"… Naruto?" Asked a distinctly girl's voice that was slowly becoming less and less timid and more and more welcoming and… loving… to him every time he heard it call to him.

The boy had known for a good five minutes already that Hinata was on her way to where he sat engrossed in his little experiment, having locked onto his uniquely colored chakra signature with her Byakugan. Thanks to his nose, he had picked up her scent on the air the moment she came within a half-mile of where he was and thus he was already prepared to see her. Turning to face the young future heir of the Hyuga clan, Naruto couldn't help but flash a gigantic and cheery smile at the fact that he had just completed his new technique.

"Hinata, I think I figured it out!" He exclaimed in a whisper, carefully trying to avoid waking his mom from her much needed bit of sleep. Ever since he had gotten back from their mission, he had hardly seen Kushina Uzumaki as she was pouring more and more of herself into the ninja world once again by working for ANBU or taking missions that took her far beyond the walls of the city. A part of him knew that it was probably because of the fact that it made her remember a potentially happier time in her life when she was still a young kunoichi free to go where the work took her, a time when she wasn't bound by the perpetual headache that came from raising such a different kind of son as him. Though it pained him a little to realize such a thing, he couldn't help but feel happy because of the sheer fact that his mom would always come home with a broad smile on her face after being gone from Konoha. And quite frankly, he was starting to think he was the same way.

"Figured out what?" She stepped almost silently before kneeling down directly behind him. Wrapping her arms around his waist she just laid her head on his shoulder, her body filled with a deep feeling of warmth as she held on to him.

"How I can always keep you company. If anyone ever finds out what has been happening, I don't think we can just pass off our seeing each other as just because we're teammates. I mean, my Mom would probably tell me that I'm risking your safety just by having told you what I am and I can't even imagine what the rest of the Hyuga clan might say if one of them caught us together. So I've been thinking and I kinda came up with a way for us to see each other even if we can't see each other. I don't want to keep putting you in danger just so we can talk without Anko-sensei around." He replied, turning his head so he could stare directly into her eyes. With a smile, he took a brief second to dispel the clone in front of him and brought his two hands into a small cross, whispering a few words under his breath without turning his eyes away from hers. For the tiniest of moments, her clear irises reflected a flash of deep crimson as a small plume of white smoke arose in front of him. Finally breaking his gaze away from Hinata, he simply placed his hand up onto the top of her head and brought her eyes down to the cloud that would dissipate in a mere moment. "Hinata, I'd like ta introduce you to Byakko, your new personal link to me at all times."

"Pleased to meet you." It was weird to hear a slightly more mature version of his voice coming from the rooftop in front of him but where the smoke was only a second earlier now stood a miniscule… creature that could only be described as the result of all his hard work combined with his own juvenile sense of humor. Standing in front of Hinata and the young kitsune she was so drawn to, a small, perfectly white fox no more than a foot long from head to tail stared up at them with tiny blue eyes and the same whiskers he had been born with. Though it looked like a summoned creature, much like one of Anko-sensei's snakes, in actuality it was one of his own shadow clones, one that had been given a large amount of his chakra so it could last for a long time and then put through his best attempt at a permanent transformation jutsu the moment he had created it. It was, in essence, a perfect duplicate of himself in the form of what he imagined a young albino fox might look like.

"He's incredible!" Hinata cooed at the tiny creature in front of her. Pushing a strand of her currently unkempt short dark hair out of the way, the young Hyuga girl looked down at her new friend with wide-eyed astonishment. "Thank you, Naruto."

"I thought you might like him. Now, because you can't always have the fox out or else one of the other Hyuga might use the Byakugan and see what it really is, there's one other little present I wanted to give you with it." Naruto replied cheerfully with a smile, reaching into his kunai pouch with his right hand as he continued to cup her cheek with his left. Pulling out a single rice-paper scroll bound up in a green cover, he unrolled it in front of the two of them and pulled out a single ink brush and a bottle of black ink with it. Finally taking his hand from her face, he dipped the brush and began to furiously scribble the seal he had created across a section of the unrolled scroll, whispering a long string of words under his breath as he drew the lines. The seal was simple in its design, a small circle made from the kanji for the four signs used in his shadow clone technique at its corners surrounded by a myriad of kanji words outside that, in essence, described the jutsu he had used to conjure the fox. In the direct middle of the seal, he wrote a single kanji for the word 'seal' and then set the brush down beside his feet. As he completed the seal, the Kitsune itself nodded and stepped into the center of the circle and sat down on its haunches. "Here, take my hand."

Helping Hinata take a seat beside him instead of where she had been at his back, he extended his left palm.

"What do I do?" She asked, kneeling down as she took his hand with hers. The young Hyuga girl's face was lit up with a kind of serene happiness that mirrored what he felt within his own self at that moment as he gazed at her. Though they had only begun to really get to know each other in the last two months since they became teammates, he felt like his being with her was something right, something that he was glad to welcome wholeheartedly. Staring into those clear lavender eyes of hers he felt all the excited tension that had built up inside of him over the Exams starting begin to fade away for the time she was with him.

"Just put your hand right here on the edge of the circle so they are touching Byakko's front paws. I'll take care of everything else." He replied calmly and carefully, still holding her right as she laid the fingers on her left over the fresh ink. Releasing her hand from his, the young kitsune performed four separate signs and then placed his hand back in Hinata's before he spoke again. "Fuuin: Kouken Byakko no Jutsu."

Though barely a whisper, those words carried with them an eerie sort of power as the lines on the scroll beneath Hinata's palm glowed with an intense crimson glow, much akin to the chakra that fed its activation. The runic kanji on the scroll shimmered in the midnight darkness, which allowed the lavender-eyed girl to read each and every word across its surface as the fox was sealed. Within a moment, the scarlet glow faded away, leaving the girl's face frozen in a state of pure amazement as she stared down at what was written on the scroll now. Whereas the word for 'seal' had been squarely in the middle of the paper a moment earlier, there was now the word 'release' painted broadly in the same place. Releasing her hand, Naruto quickly rerolled the scroll and then bound it. Without saying a word, he grabbed the brush again and drew the spiral on his jacket coupled with the kanji for fox over the label of the scroll before finally turning his gaze back to face her.

"All you have to do is call on his name and it'll release him from the scroll." He whispered, handing the scroll to her with utmost seriousness.

"I honestly don't know what to say." She replied; tears almost welling up in her eyes as she carefully held the scroll that held one of the first things she had ever received that she knew she would truly cherish.

Naruto didn't reply but just smiled almost wisely as he pulled her close to him and just held her there silently.

"… Tomorrow; Kaname, you and I are going to be going up against genin from all of the other villages and, hopefully by the end of it all, we'll all be better ninja." He said after a moment, cupping her face in his hand with a kind and careful touch. Her face lit up as he stared directly into her clear gray eyes. Even though the kitsune had taken the time to think about what he wanted to say to her tonight while he was finishing up the basic ideas of Byakko and what he could with it, his mind was quickly blanking out so he just decided to tell her what he was feeling and thinking at that moment. Though he had never been known as a quiet kid back at the Academy, the truth was that he was becoming more and more mature quicker than he had ever imagined he would. So, opening his mouth again, he just held her cheek and began to tell her what he was thinking. "I gotta tell you; I'm worried about what might happen during the Exam because we know next to nothing about what we're gonna have to face or what will happen if we become chunin. I don't know if we'll get to see each other like this if we become a higher rank because we could be put on different missions or whatever so I… I just wanted you to have something from me before we get into tomorrow, Hinata."

"I want you to have something from me, too."

His eyes went wide as their lips met for the first time.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Naru-kun…" It only lasted for a second before she quickly stood up and took off toward the edge of the roof. Leaping over the edge and across the alleyway below to another rooftop, she never looked back as she ran across the moonlit concrete, leaving Naruto sitting there stunned as he just watched run.

Slowly he began to smile a broad and boyish grin as an innocent blush rose on his cheeks and his eyes began to glow with a pleasing rose red as he collected himself while he sat there.

After a minute he finally regained a little of his composure and stood up. "Good night, Hina-chan." Taking one last look in the direction she had run off, he just smiled and took off, headed toward Mt. Hokage.

(I)

_The Konoha Ninja Academy_

_8:00 a.m. the next morning_

"Can you not just feel it in the air, my friends?" Kaname's voice was brimming with clearly evident excitement as Team Nine walked through the main gateway to the massive campus that encompassed the entire Academy. The sand-skinned boy was grinning with pure enthusiastic anticipation as he looked back at both Hinata and Naruto, walking in front of his other two teammates as though he were the squad leader for the day. Anko-sensei had told them two days earlier that she would not be with them during the Exams, just like the various masters of every other genin team that 

was competing over the duration of the tests. Thus, the usually reserved and observant transfer student had taken charge of the team as though he were already a chunin. "There is an exhilaration that is coursing through the air all around us this morning, as though the wind itself is riddled with the eagerness of what is to today. Cannot you feel it?"

Naruto didn't answer the question but instead just nodded cheerfully, a goofy happy grin plastered on his face as Hinata and he walked side by side. Neither of them had said a word about the previous evening to the other person since the team had gathered together at the front of the village more than two hours earlier but, even though he couldn't tell her what last night meant to him, his mind was swimming just being able to walk with her. He couldn't help but blush every time he looked over at her, couldn't help but notice the curve of her lips as she spoke every single word that morning. So as the three of them entered the Academy, he just folded his arms behind his head and stretching, trying to clear his mind and prepare for the first exam.

"I think it is probably the nervous energy of all the genin teams flowing around, Kaname. Considering that genin from all five of the main villages are bound to be here today, the nerves of each and every team are almost palpable." Hinata replied calmly, glancing over to Naruto with a remarkably peaceful smile. "Let's just focus on us for the time being, though."

Naruto returned her glance by smiling even more broadly as she put a barely noticeable emphasis on the word 'us' as she spoke. However, a mere second later he was snapped from his cloud nine state as a wave of the scents of at least ninety or even a hundred people suddenly overwhelmed his nose. Kaname had been right about the anticipation and eagerness in the air but there was something more in it that Naruto could smell upon the pheromones that hit him like a tank: pure fear. It was so easily felt from the crowd he could nearly taste it with his tongue as Kaname led their little team down into a hallway toward the room where the first few groups of people were.

"Hey whiskers! Over here!" A familiar voice shouted from down the hall as the kitsune forced himself to block out all the excess data that was almost overpowering his mind.

"Damn it, Kiba. You had to show up, didn't you?" Naruto replied sarcastically as his best friend rushed up to greet him and his team, Akamaru following on his heels with a cheery yip. "And here I already bet Iruka-sensei ten ryou that you wouldn't even be able to make it to the Academy with the resident black-haired sociopath leading Team Seven. Oh hey Sasuke; didn't see you there."

"Hey you can't talk about Sasuke like that!" Growled in a glowering Sakura from behind Kiba as she and the Uchiha walked up behind their dog-trainer teammate, the two of them glaring at Naruto and the rest of Team Nine with fire in each of their eyes.

"Quiet Sakura. I can deal with this trash myself." Sasuke spat in a near whisper as he pushed a rather shocked-looking Kiba out of the way to get a foot away from Naruto. The kitsune had to force his body to calm down and keep his chakra low to prevent showing even the slightest part of his true lineage as the raven-headed boy stared him down with dagger-like eyes. Behind him, Naruto could hear both Hinata's and Kaname's pulses begin to race as both every set of eyes on both teams turned to the two almost adolescent ninja staring down each other. "I'm going to give you one warning right now: Watch your back during the Exams, clown."

"You know something Sasuke? Every time you talk I swear I can just feel this blast of hot air just _pouring _from you." The Kyuubi replied with a taunting tone. His mouth curled up in a sarcastic but threatening smile, the fangs that rested prominently in his upper row of teeth showing from the edges of his mouth as he did so. Naruto had to fight the urge to ball his hand up into a fist and put Sasuke right into a wall; the last survivor of the Uchiha clan had been an unforgivably cold ass to him since the first time they had met more than four years ago and he had been dreaming of the day that he could just pound him until his hands hurt ever since then. Only because of the fact that they were Academy students up until two months ago had he not already acted on the impulse but that could easily change at any given moment. "And talk about that breath of yours! Are you sure you didn't pull a transformation jutsu so you could literally talk out of your ass because if not you should seriously consider not gargling with sewer water anymore."

"Say one more word, loser. Go ahead." Sasuke spat back venomously.

"Sasuke, Naruto; c'mon both of you," Kiba said, forcing his way between the two of them as he tried to stop what would inevitably turn into a hallway brawl between his teammate and his best friend. Naruto, meanwhile, just kept a mischievous little smile on his face as he and Sasuke continued their little staring contest. "You two don't need to fight each other when we've got enough other teams ready to beat all of us."

"Stay out of this, Kiba. Or perhaps you should just go ahead and join up with your little punk friend on Team Nine." Sasuke replied, not even looking at the Inuzuka.

"Sasuke; do you seriously think that Kakashi-sensei would want us picking fights right now? We've got enough to worry about already." Kiba pleaded as he glanced back and forth between the last Uchiha and the blonde-headed boy that was having endless amounts of fun egging him on. "Let's just get to the classroom already."

"He's right, Sasuke. The exam starts soon." Sakura piped in, glaring at Naruto almost as much as her favorite teen was. Without saying a word, Sasuke finally turned away and broke his stare, walking away down the hall with his two teammates following close behind. The kitsune couldn't help but smirk as Kiba glanced back with a look in his eyes that just screamed 'What are you thinking'; he just could not resist the urge to put that arrogant bastard in his place once and for all. In fact, it was one of the reasons he was more than excited about being able to take the exam; it gave him a free and clear shot at knocking Sasuke down a few pegs, especially if he happened to make it and the Uchiha didn't. But all that was moot as they had yet to start the exam.

"Do you really think it was wise to try and draw that one into a confrontation my friend?" Kaname asked as they began walking again, headed toward the room where the first exam would take place.

"Honestly, I don't care. Had Kiba not stopped me, I woulda been more than happy to put him on his pompous butt." Naruto responded casually as they ascended the stairwell that led up to the second floor of the Academy. The only instructions that they had received from Anko-sensei regarding the first exam was to be at Classroom 202 to take the first part of the exam. Considering that a classroom wasn't exactly the kind of setting for any sort of fight between the genin teams to test their combat skills, all he could think was that they were going to have to take a literal exam before anything really fun took place. Yet, as academics were never really his strong suit, he was kind of worried about the possibility that the test would be over things he had never bothered to learn. But since they were almost to the classroom, it's not like it mattered anymore. "Anyways, let's just focus on the first exam right now. Hinata, Kaname; you guys ready?"

They both nodded wordlessly as they approached the doorway to Classroom 202. There was a pair of Chunin guarding the doorway, both of them in nondescript gray uniforms that gave them both an overall far more boring atmosphere. One of them had a bandage wrapped around the majority of his face, as though he had been cut deeply along his cheeks and forehead. The other, meanwhile, was a bland looking man wearing a blue bandana with the hitai-ate for Konoha across his head. Each of them looked bored out of their skulls like they had already had enough of putting up with the genin taking the exam to be done with it for the rest of their lives despite the fact it was still early in the morning. As Kaname approached the door with Naruto and Hinata following behind him, the bandaged one simply held up his hand.

"Letter?" He asked flatly. Without a reply, the three genin each pulled out the small red envelope that their sensei had given them, their admittance passes to take the exam.

"Konohagakure no Sato: Squadron number Nine; Kaname Zaraki, Hinata Hyuga, and Naruto Uzumaki. You're all checked in but please note that you cannot leave this room once you enter." The bandaged man's partner responded, reading off their information from the envelopes. "Are you prepared to enter?"

"Yes." The three answered in unison.

"Then enjoy the exams. We'll be rooting for you to fail." The bandaged man spoke up again, rolling his eyes as the two of them stepped aside from the doorway to allow them passage.

"Well he was certainly cheerful, wasn't… By the sands…" Kaname began but quickly quieted himself as they walked into the classroom.

All three of Team Nine's genin just went silent as they stepped into Classroom 202, all of them immediately hit by the realization of just what the hell they had gotten themselves into by deciding to take the Chunin Exams. The room was nearly packed full of genin, each of them seemingly agitated and tense as every pair of eyes turned and stared at the door and the three young squad mates coming through it. Naruto was almost overwhelmed by the stench of fear, restlessness, and trepidation that simply poured from almost all of them like a massive wave of bottled up human emotion. Near the front of the room, standing in a corner to himself was one of only two people in the room he was not smelling the overpowering odor from: a young redheaded boy with a face that was as calm but cold as Haku's had been when she had taken off her mask. The kitsune could just barely make out the emblem for Sunagakure no Sato on the hitai-ate he wore around his arm. The only other perfectly calm person in the room was a single young man with long brown hair surrounded by a kimono-wearing kunoichi and a boy with a bowl-cut in a green jumpsuit. As Naruto's eyes drifted toward him, he quickly noticed that the young man had the same pupil-free lavender eyes that Hinata had, which meant he was also part of the Hyuga clan.

"Well, well, well; what do we have here?" Called the laid-back voice of another one of the rookie genin from their left.

"Shikamaru! Choji, Ino!" Hinata said with a good amount of cheer as their team slowly made their way over to where the three members of Team Ten stood in a back corner of the classroom.

"Hinata? Wow, you actually said all of our names without stuttering once!" Ino said with a great deal of surprise in her voice. Naruto couldn't help but smile as the young Hyuga girl began to blush uncontrollably at the rather embarrassing but still true statement. It made him happy to see the other two of his childhood friends here along with Kiba, made him a little less apprehensive about taking the exams. Shikamaru was just leaning back against the wall, one eye closed with the other watching the room while Choji merrily snacked on his usual bag of chips. "I'm really impressed!"

Hinata bowed politely, still blushing wildly.

"So what's your take on all these genin, Shika?" Naruto asked, stepping up beside his blushing lover with an eager but calm look on his face. Without glancing over to her, he quietly slipped his hand down beside hers.

"… It's troublesome." Shikamaru responded in his usual uninterested tone. His one opened eye scanned the room endlessly, watching many of the same people that had captured Naruto's attention when he had entered. The Kyuubi could tell that, even without having the same kind of advanced senses that he had, Shikamaru was getting a good read on the various other genin teams that filled the classroom. After all, even though he was by far the laziest and most laid-back person Naruto had ever known, the Uzumaki boy knew that Shikamaru was by far one of the most observant. So, without saying a word, he just waited for the Nara clansman to continue. "… From what I can see, my, yours and Kiba's teams are definitely the youngest out of the genin that have showed up so far. Considering we all just graduated from the Academy a few months ago, that doesn't really surprise me but it's still troublesome. On the other end of the scale, we have other genin that look like they are possibly up to age eighteen or perhaps older. From what I can tell, there are about ten teams competing from our village with three of them being our three rookie teams and the rest being spread out evenly in age. The rest is spaced out pretty evenly across the other hidden villages of Suna, Kiri, Kusa, and Iwa."

"That is quite a good observation but I believe you neglected to mention Oto." Said a shinobi to Naruto's right. The kitsune's eyes turned to see a strangely clad genin wearing the headband of a village he had never heard of before. The man was tall compared to the rest of the room but other than that, the only thing Naruto knew about him was that his face was completely wrapped up in bandages, showing only his left eye through the mummy-like wrappings, and he walked like a hunchback with a giant mat of straw on his back. His left arm was encased in a massive metal gauntlet with a few holes across the surface. "Are you trying to insult the Sound by not including us in your little list?"

"I think he was, Dosu. Perhaps you should teach him a lesson about that." Spoke up one of his two teammates, a guy slightly shorter than him wearing a hitai-ate with the same strange emblem of a musical note on it. "We are here to represent our village, aren't we?"

His one visible eye narrowed as the one wearing the gauntlet began to chuckle darkly, his gaze fixed on Shikamaru with a killer intent Naruto could smell emanating from him in the air he breathed. "Maybe I should, Zaku."

Naruto was impressed with the speed that the seemingly mummified Sound ninja moved with as he cleared the ten feet from where he stood to stop directly in front of Shikamaru, his gauntlet raised and pointed directly the Nara boy's face. The kitsune, however, was only slightly impressed.

"If you wanna teach someone a lesson, perhaps you should start with me. I've been meaning to find a new… tutor for quite a while." The Kyuubi spoke mischievously and venomously, moving almost instantly so that he was directly behind the one called Dosu, back to back with the bandaged Oto-nin. Having pulled out a single stretch of razor wire from his pouch before he made his move, Naruto had wrapped up the boy's gauntlet in the wire and proceeded to pull it behind his back with almost no effort at all. Watching the two other Sound ninja while holding their leader's arm in the wire to prevent him from moving, the young kitsune couldn't help but begin to smirk slightly at the sight of their shocked-looking faces. He really did love the fact that people continued to underestimate him because of his age and size. "I've got a few minutes if you wanna go ahead and give my studies a shot right here and now. And if you don't have the time to teach _me_, then maybe you shouldn't try to teach others."

Without another word, Naruto let the razor wire around the man's gauntlet go loose and released his arm.

"… Next time, you're mine. Zaku, Kin; let's find another place to stand so we don't have to put up with this riff-raff." Dosu replied, staring directly at Naruto with a 'if looks could kill' kind of gaze that would have sent shivers down the Kyuubi's spine if Naruto hadn't already known that he could probably kill him with a simple round of fire from his burning clones.

"It looks like you've been taking your training seriously for once, blonde." Shikamaru just spoke casually as Naruto turned to face the stunned glances of both Choji and Ino. While his two teammates, Hinata especially, were getting quite used to his level of power, both of Shikamaru's fellow squad members looked as though they had just seen the resurrection of the First Hokage right before their very eyes. However, their calm and lazy teammate did not look the least bit nervous or even surprised by what he had just seen.

"One of us had to. Not everyone has the luxury of sitting around and watching the clouds all day." Naruto replied sarcastically, a smirk on his face. The reality was just what he had said: whereas Shikamaru intentionally skipped out on training sessions, napped in class and had never really participated in anything, the kitsune was pushing himself as much as possible as quickly as possible to begin to realize just what he could do. With the kind of raw skill and talent his true heritage provided for him, he knew that there was really no limit to what he could achieve if he was willing to try. Thus, he was spending every waking minute that he didn't spend together with his team or alone with Hinata pouring over the Shodaime's scroll with the utmost of eagerness. And if things kept clicking like they had been lately, the young fox had no doubts in his mind that he was well on his way to becoming the youngest Mizukage of all time. "I just decided it was time to stop acting like an Academy student and start acting like a real ninja."

"Hhn… Well don't forget that we're all still just genin. At least, we all are until this troublesome exam begins and… Speaking of the demon fox," The boy fell silent his open eye turning away from Naruto toward the door in the front of the classroom.

Every genin followed his example as almost a hundred pairs of eyes turned and watched as a single man entered from the hardwood door at the front of the room. All of them, even the kitsune 

himself, felt a cold and terrible shiver run down their spines as the man returned their gazes with an icy, stoic intensity unlike anything any of them had ever felt before. There was a bitter hardness about the man, one only intensified by his dead gaze and battle-edged face. He wore a simple black bandana to cover the top of his head while his face from the eyes down was revealed for them all to see. From the edge of his left eye down across his face ran a most horrific scar, one that by the look of it had been carved deep into his flesh years earlier. It was coupled with another scar, about half the length of the first, which framed his right cheek and jaw. Everything about his physical appearance screamed of torture, of a living hell that Naruto could only begin to imagine.

"Each of you will find your name on one of the seats in this room. Find them and sit but do not say a word. If you talk, you will be immediately disqualified." He commanded. As all of the genin silently followed his instructions, the back door from which they had all entered opened again and twenty other ninja, all of whom he could only assume were chunin or jonin based on the fact that they themselves were not taking the exam. Once they had all taken their seats, both the genin and their observers, the man spoke again.

"My name is Ibiki Morino. I am your proctor for the first portion of this exam."

Naruto couldn't help but glance at Hinata as their proctor spoke up, trying to convey the kind of read he was getting from the man with just a simple look in his eyes. She was sitting next to him with Kaname a row behind them and five seats to the left. The kitsune couldn't help but thank the fates that he had been lucky enough to get to set with at least one of his teammates in the exam as most of the other genin teams did not look so fortunate, especially not the other rookie teams. So as he turned his eyes to Hinata, Naruto just nodded and then turned his attention back to their exam-giver, having said all he needed to only by looking in her eyes and smelling the pheromones coming from her.

"Now that you have all taken your seats, listen well because I will only say this once: The first portion of this exam is a ten question written test. I will be giving you the first nine questions in just a moment and then you will have one hour to answer them. After that hour is up, the final question will be given. If you miss more than two questions during this test, you will fail." Ibiki's words were as harsh and stoic as his appearance, his voice a militarily hardened dead tone that seemed to echo with a cold, callous air throughout the room. His deadened eyes moved about the room as he stared at each and every one of the nearly one hundred genin in the class while they all waited with baited breath for him to resume speaking. "Now pay attention: I will not, under any circumstances, tolerate any of you worthless bastards cheating during this exam. Each of these chunin and jonin you see sitting along the edge of the room are going to be watching your each and every move, as will I. If any of you are caught cheating three times during this exam, you _and _your team will be immediately disqualified. A good shinobi knows to obey his commander's orders and if you are incapable of doing so, you have no right to even be chunin candidates."

He paused for a moment to let his words sink in while the room remained silent.

After about a minute of silence, he finally spoke up again, this time to the various higher-ranking ninja that would be observing them during the exam. "Administer the test. You all have one hour."

Unanimously the elder ninja in the room all began to pass the copies of the single page exam down the numerous rows of people. As his copy reached him, Naruto stared long and hard at it, a look of complete and utter disbelief rising on his face as he did so.

_'What the hell? How in Kami's name are we supposed to answer questions like this?' _The kitsune thought to himself as he began to read over the nine questions that were already written on the page. Each one was unlike anything he had ever seen on any of the written tests he had had to take throughout his entire time at the Academy. The questions posed were ridiculous and required such outlandish knowledge of the ninja world that he knew no genin should rightfully be able to answer them, especially not the rookies like his team. _'Question One – Combat Logic: A four man team is gathering intelligence on your village when you find them in a remote location outside of the village. Two of them are skilled in ninjutsu, one in genjutsu, and the final member is a non-combatant tactician. Assuming that they are all Chunin, which member, if any, should you engage and eliminate first and why? Question Two - Physics: Your team is running through a forest at an average rate of 35 kpm in pursuit of an enemy nin running at 38 kpm when the shinobi leaps up a tree and throws two shuriken and one kunai with killing force. What should you throw to counter the attack and how much force should you put behind it?'_

His mind was racing as he read through the other seven questions after the first two, each of them more and more difficult than the previous ones. It just did not make sense! Why would their proctor give them all such a ludicrously hard exam when only truly genius genin would be able to answer maybe one or two of the questions?

Naruto cast a sideways glance to Hinata only to have it returned with one identical to his. Just from the look in her eyes, he knew she was wondering the exact same things that he was. _'Why would they give us a test like this when obviously no one can answer the questions? I mean, it's just imposs… What the hell?'_ While he was lost in his little inner-monologue, his eyes were drifting around and watching the backs of the other genin in the room. Most of them were sitting there motionless and, from what he could tell, staring at the paper just like everyone else; but two of them, one about a row ahead and the other three rows diagonally across from him, were scribbling about furiously as though the exam was not bothering them at all.

"Forty-five minutes remaining." Ibiki called out from the front of the classroom.

_'Why isn't this giving those two any difficulty?! If only I could cheat off of them I could pass this thing with no difficulty at all but if Ibiki catches me three times he said he would disqualify the whole team… Wait, why wouldn't he disqualify me if I cheated only once like on a normal exam?'_ Naruto's mind was starting to process all the data that he had received as the chakra began to feed his brain and help it to see a little more clearly. Closing his eyes for a moment, he leaned back in his chair and thought about all that Ibiki had said, especially about the policy regarding cheating. _'He'll only disqualify us after he's caught us three times. That means… he's okay with us cheating as long as we don't get caught! I got it!'_

His eyes shot open with the realization of the true purpose of the test, a sly and undeniably fox-like grin rising on his cheeks as his irises started to turn red. Leaning forward and putting his hands down below the top of the desk, he quickly made the cross-shaped seal to summon a shadow clone and whispered those four little words.

Leaning forward so that his mouth was not visible to anyone but the desk in front of him, he quickly tapped on Hinata's leg to get her attention. As she glanced over at him, a look of understanding dawned on her face almost immediately. Without a word, the Hyuga girl quickly followed his pose so that they could not be seen talking.

_"Listen but don't say a word. The test is to make us cheat without getting caught!" _He whispered fiercely but quietly as possible. _"Activate your Byakugan. Once I start writing, watch my pencil and then copy what I write down but __**make sure**__ they don't see you watching me. Don't let them know we're cheating."_

Without another word, he leaned back up, Hinata following suit a moment later. Beside him, she nodded with a look of realization washing over her pale features. Out of the corner of his eye, he could just scarcely make out the veins on her face as they bulged out just barely after a moment, a sign that her chakra was now beginning to course through her eyes as she activated her kekkai genkai. Turning slightly, he glanced back to Kaname only to catch the darkly tanned boy's ice blue gaze. Mouthing the word 'Cheat' as small as he could, Kaname only replied with a small but knowing smirk, as though he had already figured out the true purpose of the test. Turning back around, Naruto couldn't help but smirk as well. _'Good. Now I just have to wait for the other me to get down to one of those two with the answers.'_

When he had put his hands beneath his desk and performed the shadow clone technique, the kitsune had created a perfect shadow clone that was barely the size of an average insect, one that was now slowly but surely working its way over to the know-it-all a row ahead of him. As soon as the clone got there, it was going to look at the man's paper from the edge of the desk so it wasn't seen and then immediately destroy itself. When all was said and done, Naruto would have all the memories and information that it had gathered put into his mind as an extremely useful side-effect of the technique. All he had to do was sit back and wait.

"Thirty minutes remaining." Ibiki spoke up once again.

(I)

Author's Note: Well, as I said in the opening of this chapter, I've been playing WoW pretty seriously over the last few weeks as I've gotten back into the swing of the game so sorry it's been so long since I updated. Also in case you're wondering, I actually like both Sakura and Sasuke as characters. I always have but I just needed antagonists for this portion of the story so that's why they're at Naruto's throat for the time being. Anyways, good night to all of you and hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Review it and tell me what you think. Peace.


	13. Chapter 12: The FortyFourth

Author's Note: Well I'm back. Hopefully by the time this chapter is done I'll be almost halfway done with the second exam but nothing's guaranteed. Anyways, I'm going to be trying to put up as much as I can over the next two months because I start back my classes come the first week of July so I'll be seriously focusing on school when they begin. Now that that's been said, let's get chapter twelve started already.

"I…" indicates conversation.

"_I…"_ indicates inner thought.

"_**I…"**_ indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

* * *

Chapter 12: The Forty-Fourth

* * *

"Thirty minutes remaining." The stoic and almost lifeless sounding voice of their proctor Ibiki called, his words just barely registering with Naruto as the young kitsune carefully smelled the air to try and locate the tiny copy of him that would help him and Hinata pass the exam. Without another word from the dark-looking proctor, a single kunai shot past Naruto's shoulder with deadly accuracy, pinning the test of a genin sitting behind him to the desk it was on. Three of the chunin and jonin sitting along the walls simultaneously got up from their seats and immediately grabbed the young man and his teammates without so much as a single word.

"B-but I wasn't cheating! You can't do this to me or m-my team; this isn't fair!" The genin roared as the sub-proctors led him and his associates toward the back of the classroom to the exit door. Ibiki just looked as unfazed and dead behind the eyes as he had since the moment he walked into the classroom, the shouts and screams of how unfair he was being not even bothering him in the least. Naruto could not help but gulp a little at the sight; it was the seventh team out of the nearly thirty that had been eliminated without so much as a second glance from the cold and emotionless man that stood at the front of the room. Turning his attention back to his own paper, the Kyuubi could only hope that Ibiki didn't notice the half-inch orange-clad copy of him that was soon going to disappear so Naruto could learn what it was memorizing right now.

He closed his eyes, breathing a deep breath in and tasting each and every little scent and pheromone that was drifting throughout the classroom as a small, prideful little smile slowly crept over his cheeks.

"Now." Naruto whispered as he opened his eyes, staring directly at the examiner dressed in black and gray as he picked up his pencil. A moment earlier, there was an almost imperceptible pop that he had just barely picked up with his focused ears. The next split second later, his mind was flooded with the images of a test that was already completed, all nine of the currently available questions answered without so much as a hiccup of bad knowledge. As graphite met paper, the kitsune boy quickly and furiously wrote each and every word that his clone had memorized.

_'You would dispatch of the genjutsu master first and then, if battle is unavoidable, attack the tactician before worrying about the final two ninja. As the other two are skilled primarily in the use of _

_offensive-based ninjutsu, you should only engage whenever you have eliminated their advantages. With their genjutsu user incapacitated, they can only primarily attack without any real deception in their movements with the exception of speed. Eliminating their tactician will force them to rely on whatever tactics they themselves have created and thus, they will be less organized.' _He quickly wrote down the answer to the first question without a single problem, Hinata shyly following suit a moment later as she kept her eyes focused on her own paper. Naruto couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer versatility of her Byakugan as it gave her a nearly perfect field of vision even when she was not watching him. So even with her pupil-free irises not even gazing at him, she could see his pencil as he wrote across the test and she could copy everything he scribbled.

"Fifteen minutes remaining." Ibiki spoke up again.

The last few minutes they had remaining of the test passed rapidly as Naruto continued to work, marking down every little letter with the utmost of haste. Even as another three teams got expelled from the exam, he continued to maintain his focus, not paying attention to their cries for mercy or their shouts of injustice. All he cared about at this moment was that he and Hinata finished up. Based on how Kaname had reacted when he had hinted as best he could at what they were _really_ supposed to do during the test, he had a good deal of faith that the boy was probably already done. So as he quickly wrote down the answer for question nine, he just sat back and relaxed, putting his hands behind his head.

A moment later Hinata finished writing as well, her eyes briefly glancing cheerfully at him as she deactivated her Byakugan. Naruto flashed a knowing grin, his right hand slipping across the surface of the table to cover her left while they waited for the test to finish.

(I)

"Five, four, three, two, one; pencils down." With Ibiki's final countdown, the twenty-three genin teams that had either not cheated or just not gotten caught all quietly put down their pencils and, as one, all looked up to face their iron-jawed examiner. Once they had done so, the man in the black trench-coat showed the first ounce of emotion Naruto had seen from him since he walked in the room: he began to smile. It was such a creepy thing to see, something so at odds with the disfiguration and scars that covered his face that it sent a cold shiver down even the Kyuubi's spine. As he stared out over the crowd of ninja from the great villages, his smile grew more and more wide and disturbing until he at last opened his mouth. "The most basic thing that any good shinobi must know is secrecy, the art of complete and utter deception. A ninja must be unseen, unheard and, most importantly of all, unknown until the final moment before they act; and even then, they must slip back into oblivion as quietly as they had appeared from it. The first part of this test was to see if you worthless little genin understand this principle."

While Ibiki spoke, the kitsune felt a deep sense of pride and accomplishment as he did so, having figured out what they were really supposed to be doing during the exam while some of the other genin did not. Looking around the room, he could tell that there was at least about a fourth of the class that had not seen through the thinly disguised rules of the test based on the shocked or disappointed reactions. However, all of the other rookies had the same self-confident smirk plastered on their faces that he himself had.

"As soon as any of you picked up this test, you all should have been immediately able to tell that it was not designed for someone of a genin's skill level and knowledge. That part was clear to each and every one of you. However, there were three among you who clearly knew the answers from the start of the exam. Mikotsu, Sado, and Rinoka; stand and present yourselves to the class," In perfect unison, the two men that Naruto had pegged as the people they were supposed to cheat off stood up, accompanied by a young woman in her late teens from a few rows back. Each one of them looked stern and serious as though they had just completed an utterly life-threatening mission of the utmost of importance. "The real objective of this exam, as many of you already knew or have figured out by now, was to see if you could effectively cheat and get away without being caught. These three chunin were placed in your midst and given the answers to all nine questions of the first portion of the exam. It was your job to find them, to learn their answers, and then copy them for yourselves without being noticed. You all know what happened to the ones who failed so I congratulate all of you maggots who succeeded in escaping my gaze this time around… But, before you go patting yourselves on the back, you still have one last question. And this time, there's no cheating your way through it."

The Kyuubi's clear blue eyes widened just slightly as Ibiki reminded him of what he had almost wonderfully forgotten: there was still one last question before he was one step closer. And from the looks of the other people in the class, he wasn't the only one who was depressed about that fact.

"Mikotsu, Sado, Rinoka, leave your rows and take your seats with the rest of your fellow examiners. As for the rest of you, listen carefully to the words I am about to speak because they may be the last you hear as a ninja." Now that got his attention. Screw being depressed that there was still one more question to go, all Naruto could focus on was that one simple sentence. What did he mean; they could be the last words they heard as shinobi? "As I said before the test began, I will be giving you the final question. Before I give it to you though, I offer any of you the chance to resign from the test. If you do, you and your team will be disqualified and you'll have the opportunity to take the next round of the exams in six months. All you have to do is raise your hand and your squadron will be shown the door."

"Well why the hell would we do that?" Kiba's voice sounded off from clear across the room. As Naruto glance over to him, he couldn't help but smile at his best friend's clear-cut honesty in the question that had been on the tip of everyone's tongue, his included. Ibiki, meanwhile, just turned his attention and ice-cold stare toward the furry-headed boy and the dog that was resting on his head.

"Because if you choose to take this question and you get it wrong, you and your team will be stripped of your rank and you will never be allowed to become ninja again."

The room went deathly silent.

From all around him, the pheromones of fear and anxiety began to flood Naruto's nose like the most potent of elixirs, overloading his brain while he fought off the feeling of hopelessness that was trying to wash over him. Although it was only a few seconds before someone finally spoke up, it felt like an endless eternity as the whole room watched and waited to see who would resign from this ludicrous exam and just throw in the towel to save their own skins. A moment later, someone finally spoke up.

"Shoichi, what the hell are you doing?" Fiercely spoke a silver-headed boy wearing a leaf headband only two chairs down the row from where Naruto sat. Across the walkway and one row closer to the front, a young man of about sixteen who the kitsune could obviously assume was his teammate had shakily raised his hand and was slowly climbing to his feet. Pushing the single strand of crimson hair 

that had fallen down in front of his face out of the way, Naruto took a good long look at the incredibly nervous teenager, watching his pale face with the utmost of intensity. "Sit back down, now!"

"I can't do it, Jin. I j-just can't do it!" His teammate almost cried as he shakily stepped out into the row. "If you, m-me or Narusegawa m-m-miss the question, w-we'll never b-be able to be ninja!"

"Examiners, remove him and his teammates from the classroom." Ibiki commanded. In perfect unison, six of the chunin that were sitting along the walls stood up and calmly walked over and extracted the whimpering boy, his still shouting companion and a girl with dark auburn hair a row away from the door. One by one, they exited the room, their footsteps carrying such finality to them as the echoed across the hardwood flooring. Once they had all been escorted from the classroom, Ibiki once again opened his mouth. "Anyone else? I'll give you a moment to think about it amongst yourselves."

The room went loud with the whispers of more than sixty remaining shinobi as he began to drown in the white noise. An ice-cold bead of sweat ran down the back of his neck as Naruto fought to maintain his cool. All inside him, his mind was screaming at what complete and utter stupidity it was to take the final question when he could be forced to give up being a ninja. If he was ever to realize his true potential as a shinobi or even _think_ about becoming the next Mizukage, there was no way he could ever give up the ninja lifestyle, not even for a single moment! It seemed like total idiocy to want to stay and take the question, but the cool and calculating side of him seemed to scream from within his own mind that a real man would face such an obstacle. _'If I give up now, then I've failed Hinata, Kaname, Anko-sensei, Mom, Grandpa Jiraiya and even that damn old man Sarutobi! But if I stay and don't get it right, what kind of loser would I be then? My instincts are telling me to take the question but my brain's telling me not to! Why in Kami's name did we have to be given this unreadable sadist for our first proctor?! I can't tell anything about him from his scent or anything!'_

"Naruto…" Hinata whispered nervously from beside him. The Kyuubi had been so caught up in his own little inner-monologue he had not even noticed that she was gripping his hand as tightly as she could. As he turned to face her, the worried expression she had been wearing as she watched his inner confusion softened ever so slightly and her eyes took on a calm and pleasing glow. "Tell me what you are thinking."

"I don't know… what to do. One way or another, I'm risking complete failure." He gazed at her lavender irises with an intense look of turmoil plastered clear across his whiskered face. "I honestly don't think I can risk not being a ninja."

With a nod, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply for a moment before leaning in to speak to him quietly. Her voice went nearly silent as she whispered fiercely and directly into his ear, a serious and truthful tone filling what sound came from her lips. "Naruto, during the fight with Haku, did you sit back and wonder if it was worth it? If you had, then there is a very real possibility that both Kaname and I would have our names on the Hero's Memorial right now. Anko-sensei would probably be lying somewhere at the bottom of the sea, Tazuna would have been dead long before the bridge was finished, and who knows what Gato's sick men might have done to his family. You proved that day that you're more of a ninja than anyone else I have ever met because you didn't hesitate to fight and you saved everyone's life." She spoke, all the while gripping his hand as though it was a piece of driftwood and she was out in open water. "I… I have always watched and admired you because you never stopped living. You were always giving everything you could in the tests back in the Academy and you always 

brought laughter to the class as though it was a stage for you to entertain from. In all the time I've been in the Academy with you, you never once gave up… Are you honestly about to start now?"

Pulling away from his ear for a moment, she leaned back and allowed him to see the gravity clear in her eyes. She had never been one to speak her mind, let alone speak at all, before they had become teammates, and now here she was asking him one of the most brutally honest questions he had had to answer since he had first wondered what he was. It sent a cool, refreshing shiver up and down his skin to hear such strong words from the girl who had given him his first kiss less than ten hours earlier.

"Now, what are you going to do?"

_'She's right! A real ninja wouldn't shy away from a challenge like this! And I'm one going to be the best damn __**Mizukage**__ that ever lived so there's no way I could ever walk out on this test!'_

A split second later, he nodded, the coy and cunning smirk that he had had during the first part of the exam returning to his cheeks as his eyes slowly began to slit and change from their bright and vibrant blue to a deep and powerful red.

"Thanks Hinata." He replied as he squeezed her hand with a look of pure excitement showing through his intense eyes. "I really needed to hear that."

"This is your last chance. After this, you will not be able to walk away from the exam." Ibiki spoke clearly, his eyes moving across the sea of faces to lock gazes for the tiniest of instants with the Kyuubi. The creepy, eerie little smile that Ibiki wore upon his dead-set face never faltered once as he peered directly into the crimson irises set squarely in Naruto's forehead, giving the boy the impression that he knew something. Either that; or he had been through so much that he was incapable of being shaken by such a simple change in appearance. "Will any more of you leave?"

The room went as deathly silent as it had the moment the exam began, a wave of adrenaline and steeled nerves washing over Naruto as he, like everyone else in that classroom, simply stared on ahead at their proctor. None of them even whispered, even breathed in that moment as they waited for the test to resume and give them the chance to meet their fate. Nine teams had been eliminated since the exam had begun only an hour ago so the genin had already lost nearly a third of the number that had been in the room when Ibiki had arrived. And yet, even with the knowledge that those nine teams could still retake the exam whereas the ones that remained might never get another chance, the sixty remaining genin just deadened their stress and calmed their minds and waited.

"No? Very well then." Ibiki took a long pause as his smile began to soften very slightly until it was less of a completely disturbing sight. After a moment, he just began to clap. "Congratulations, you have all passed the first stage of the Chunin exams."

"W-what? WHAT?!" Across the class, an almost furious uproar of stunned shock and utter disbelief echoed from sixty different voices as they all struggled to come to terms with what he had just said. From behind Naruto, Kiba's voice rose above the rest as he asked one simple question. The blonde-headed boy couldn't help but feel a little relieved that he was still sitting in the classroom and had not been disqualified. "Are you freaking serious?! What about the tenth question?"

"That was the tenth question." The Morino man replied calmly as he stared up at the future clansman of the Inuzuka. "And you have all just passed it."

"B-but that doesn't make sense. What was the question supposed to be then?" Ino's tone was filled with just as much shock as everyone else in the room. Gazing around at the other genin, Naruto couldn't help but notice every face had the same bewildered and stunned expression plastered on it with the exception of Shikamaru and red-haired genin from Suna that he had noticed when he first entered the room. However, he quickly turned his attention back to their proctor, awaiting a suitable answer just like everyone else.

"The question… was whether or not you all are truly _worthy _of being ninja at all, much less worthy of being Chunin." The black-clad proctor reached up with those final words and proceeded to untie the knot that held his bandana over his scarred and disfigured head. As the knot gave way and the black bandana slipped off, it revealed a terrible and horrifying sight to them all. A wave of gasps and whispered prayers and swears echoed through the room as each eye was immediately fixated on this… this canvas of atrocities. Across his completely bald head ran numerous now bloodless cuts that went down nearly to the skull with screws and permanent stitching covering up the scarred and battered tissue in between each slice. Looking upon the uncovered flesh of his hairless head was like looking into a sadistic butcher's back room the day that fresh livestock arrived every week. Naruto could hear a few students throughout the room actually gagging at the sight of it while he fought back the knot that was pushing itself up into his throat from the pit of his stomach. Beside him, Hinata tensed up visibly as she held even tighter to the young kitsune. "Look. Look upon each of these scars! These are what await you if you continue on the path of a shinobi. If you are ever caught by an enemy during a mission, they will torture you until the point you break or they will just outright kill you as they see fit. During a mission, a ninja must be willing to look past this fact, look past the possibility of death and complete the task that his Kage has given to him!

"If any of you had been too cowardly or afraid to risk your future as ninja by taking the final question, then how could you ever be trusted to risk your very lives when it would count? If you had resigned, you would not have been worthy of being ninja. Yet because you did not, you are one step closer to becoming Chunin." Ibiki said with pride.

The Kyuubi felt his head nearly spinning as he watched the steely-eyed proctor with the utmost of attention, a single question rising in his mind above all the chaos.

"Well then, what happened to the people that did give up?" The young kitsune asked honestly.

"The teammates of those who gave up will have a chance to take the exam again the next time it is held in six months. As for the two who personally quit instead of being retired by the actions of their teammates, they will never be shinobi again." Those final six words sent a frigid chill down the spines of almost every single shinobi in the room save a small number of completely emotionless ones. Naruto could feel his own heart racing at the simple little phrase, the realization that, had Hinata not said anything to him, he could very well have been banned from the ranks of Konoha ninja for the rest of his life. Yet for the time being, he just forced himself to push back that knowledge and calm his pulse while Ibiki continued. "Such cowardice, such selfish regard only for one's own personal wellbeing, is not something that can be tolerated if any of you wish to be more than the dregs of your own villages. Each one of you has passed this first stage because you did not quit. Consider yourselves all fortunate."

As the room began to speak again, the fox child's ears picked up over the dull murmurings of the class the sound of a pair of heavy-booted feet as they and their owner made their way across the room behind the class' current proctor. A moment later, the door behind Ibiki opened for the second time. As if the sight of the tortured and disfigured first examiner was not enough to scare the already tense and nervous students, the man that entered the room from behind Morino-sensei was an equally disturbing shinobi wearing the basic blue pants, flak jacket, and hitai-ate of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. However, what made this new shinobi's appearance as unsettling as that of Ibiki was the fact that he had burn scars and flesh grafts stretching up across his face, as though his face had been only a hair of a centimeter away from a well-aimed fireball. Most of his hair had grown back from this undoubtedly horrible event, leaving his visage partially hidden by long brown locks that framed it up intensely. The man's left eye was sunken in because of the scarred skin that wrapped around it while the area around his right eye was left untouched. Overall, it gave his distant and uninterested stare a seemingly sinister feel as he looked out at the class like it was just one big annoyance. To Naruto, it was like someone had taken Shikamaru's father Shikaku and put a torch to the left side of his face and just held it there for a minute.

"So these are the ones left?" He asked Ibiki without even turning to look at the man. His tone was as uninterested as his lazy gaze was.

"These are the ones that are still worthy of taking the Exam," Proctor Morino replied, that cold and dark smile still upon his otherwise emotionless face.

"Are they now? Well then, it looks like you've gotten soft lately, Morino. I was thinking you'd weed them out a little better than this." He spoke coolly. The entire class went silent and wide-eyed at those words. The sheer thought that the almost sadistic mind-games that their Proctor had played with them since they started this exam were easy was incomprehensible to them, as was the thought that this tough-as-nails looking sociopath that had administered the test had gone mentally 'soft' any time recently. Ibiki, meanwhile, actually turned his icy stare away from the class for only a moment to glare at the unblemished side of the new man's face. Even though he had not given off a single emotional pheromone since the test began, the kitsune began to smell an intense anger coming from him, a killer intent unlike anything he had felt since Zabuza first appeared.

"Just do your job, Hibal, before I do mine."

It sent a cold shudder up his spine to wonder what that job could be, a feeling he could feel shared with Hinata as her hand tensed up while she gripped his.

"Very well..." He paused for a moment before taking a step forward so that he was now standing in front of their first proctor. Straightening up fully, the man named Hibal spoke with a colder but far fiercer tone than Ibiki had yet. "To all of you would-be ninja who think you've accomplished something this morning by cheating or lucking your way through this first part of the Chunin Exams; I'd like to introduce myself. I am Hibal Miyami, the Proctor of the second stage. And as of right now, playtime is over."

_'…Ah damnit.'_

(I)

_The Outer Konoha Forest_

_12:23 p.m._

Naruto breathed in deeply through his nostrils, letting the scents of the hundreds of different flora and fauna of the forest around him register in his mind. Since the end of the first portion of the exam almost three hours earlier, the burnt jonin that he assumed was their proctor for the second test had been leading them further and further away from the village and into the deep wilds of the forest that covered most of the Land of Fire. Other than a command for the genin to follow him and a few mumbles under his breath about what a crappy assignment this was, the man had refrained from speaking almost at all, especially not to the genin themselves. Quite frankly, the kitsune was losing more and more of the worry that had filled him when the man named Hibal had first introduced himself; all his senses were telling him that their proctor was nothing more than a grumbling young adult who liked to play it cool. _'It's kind of like someone took Sasuke, aged him ten years, and then put the left side of his face on an open fire. Hmm… Sasuke and an open fire… Sounds like a great way to waste a few hours.'_

He fought back a chuckle, instead smirking at his own little inner joke.

Up ahead, their new proctor had stopped walking for the first time. In front of him was a ridiculously giant chain-link fence, one that was at least twenty five feet tall, which cordoned off a section of the forest which seemed massively overgrown when compared to the relatively normal sized trees they had been walking under for the last two hours. Listening intently, Naruto's ears picked up the distant sounds of many different types of life in the extremely gargantuan trees. The scent of dried blood, caked on from what must have been years upon years of conflict and death, flooded his nostrils as he breathed in the air. Within him, the sights, sounds and scents of it all was making his blood pump and his animalistic senses flair.

"Pay attention, genin dogs; I'm only gonna say this once." Hibal turned to face all of them, standing in front of the link fence like it was the backdrop for a stage and he was some sort of twisted main actor. All eyes turned to face him while he stared them down with the same coolly demented stare from behind the burnt flesh that covered his face. "This is the Forty-Fourth Battleground, affectionately named by those who have survived it 'The Forest of Death'. In this little blood-soaked hellhole, you'll be taking the second part of your exam. And unlike Ibiki's little cheat game, this time you'll all have a chance to kill each other."

There was an audible gulp among the crowd of students as he spoke these words, even from the older ones that had taken the exam before. However, none of them said a thing because the proctor continued before any of them could speak up.

For the first time since he had opened his mouth back in Ibiki's classroom, Proctor Miyami spoke in a serious and "During this second portion of the Chunin Exams, each genin team will be given one of two scrolls: either a Heaven or an Earth scroll. Your objective as a team is procure the other type of scroll and then make it to the tower at the center of the forest, five miles in. If you open either of the two scrolls you need before you are in the base and greeted by a judge, you will be disqualified and forced to suffer the consequences. So, in case any of you do not understand these instructions, it's real simple: all you have to do is find a team who has the scroll you need and take it from them the get to home base without being stupid enough to open them. It's capture the flag; only difference is this time, you can and just might die."

"So then what are the rules?" Naruto turned to see Sasuke himself being the only one who spoke up, asking the question that was on each and every one of their minds as they all mentally prepared to kill their fellow test-takers if necessary.

"To put it simply: there are none." Trying not to gasp or gulp, Hinata's hand slipped through the kitsune's fingers and began to grip tightly as her throat seemed went cold and clammy with those words. Without even trying to use his advanced senses, the blonde-headed Kyuubi could literally feel the wave of fear washing over him from her and almost every other person in the crowd of teenagers and young adults. Deep inside him, however, an almost primal feeling seemed to stir with the knowledge that he could possibly even face his _own_ death during this stage of this exam. It was as though those three little words had flipped a tiny little insignificant switch somewhere deep within his heart and activated some sort of an adrenaline pump that was making his body nearly twitch. His heart was racing with the possibilities of being to face any and possibly every one of the other teams taking this exam, to be able to truly test his own skill while fighting for his very life if it got that far. It was a rush of epinephrine to his brain, a deadening of his nerves, and an instant activation of his instincts like they had not been before. In all honestly, it felt really good.

"Are there any other questions?" Hibal asked. All of them remained silent this time. "Good, then we can get started. But just one last thing: if you die out there, you won't have been heroes for your village. You'll just have been useless fodder."

(I)

_The Forty-Fourth Battleground_

_1:54 p.m._

Within another hour and a half, Proctor Miyami had split them all up until it was only each three man cell together at one of the gates spread out around the forest. Naruto and Team Nine were relatively close to the original entry gate that they had all first arrived at and, in another six minutes, would be starting the second stage of the Chunin Exams. Wearing a serious grimace on his face, the kitsune just twirled the small scroll that the two sub-proctors guarding the gate nearby had given them once they arrived at it. It was a small little thing wrapped up in a black border. On the front of it, the word 'Heaven' had been inked in clear, black kanji. Other than that though, the scroll had no distinctive characteristics.

"It is most obvious that we need one of the earth scrolls; however, it would be unwise for us to attack all other teams we come across before we learn which scroll they possess." Kaname half-whispered as he kneeled down on the soft grass, kneeling in the proper stance they had all been taught as children. He was holding a single kunai and drawing up a rough representation of what the objectives were for the second stage. "Proctor Hibal said that the tower we must reach is precisely five miles from the fence, squarely in the center of the battlefield. If that is true, then this fence encircles an area fifteen and a half miles around and since there are twenty remaining teams, then that means that we are spaced out about three-fourths of a mile away from each other."

"I'm not good with math so what exactly does that mean?" Naruto asked honestly, kneeling down in front of Kaname's little circle drawing while Hinata put her hand on his shoulder. "How does it help us?"

"Well that is the dilemma, my friend. We do not know which teams have an earth scroll and which ones have a heaven scroll. For all we know, they may have arranged it so it goes one than the other at each entrance or we may all be on one half while those with the other scroll could be on the other." The sand-colored preteen replied as he pushed back a strand of the long silvery hair that fell down to his shoulders. Spinning the kunai about with the simplest of ease, he marked a single x in the middle of his drawing and then circled it. With the same silky and foreign tone he always spoke with, Kaname resumed to discuss his idea for their tactics in this little war-game. "However, what I am thinking is this: for any team to succeed in this exam, they need both scrolls. So once they have them, they will come toward the tower. If we were to make our way to the tower to begin with, we could simply just hide out and wait for one to arrive and then take what we need from them. Like a sand scorpion, we will let our prey come to us."

The Kyuubi nodded seriously. "How do we go about dealing with teams that may come up with this strategy as well though, Kaname?"

"That is where you come in, comrade. Even though it is allowed to eliminate one's opponents in this stage, I do not believe that it would be justified for us to kill someone else just for trying to succeed as well. If we are approached by another team who wishes to take our scroll, all we must do is hinder their means or break their will. And forgive me for being blunt, but I believe your clones may have a way of accomplishing both. All it takes is a little disguising."

As he started to understand just what his other male teammate was saying, the kitsune couldn't help but smirk a little bit at the ideas he was getting.

"I may have just the thing." He replied, climbing back to his feet as he slid his hand into Hinata's. "Hinata, when we get into position near the tower, we'll need you to act as a lookout so I can prepare a special little welcome gift for whatever team we come across. Is that okay with you?"

Without even responding, she just smiled as the veins around her eyes suddenly shot up against her pale skin.

"I'll take that as a yes." Naruto finished.

"Team Nine, you will be allowed admittance into the forest in thirty seconds. Prepare yourselves because once you are in you may not leave unless you forfeit the exam or are disqualified for opening the scrolls." The ninja guarding their gate spoke up from his post behind the kitsune. Nodding, Kaname rose to his feet and pulled out a single kunai in his right hand while Hinata deactivated her Byakugan. In between his two teammates, the Kyuubi's blood began to burn as his chakra swirled with anticipation and eagerness for a good fight. With Kaname on his left and Hinata on his right, the boy let his irises burn to an intense shade of red and bared his fangs. In front of them, the gate just opened on its own. "The second portion of the Chunin Exam has begun. Good luck."

"Let's go." The Bijuu spoke, leading them into the ominous forest.

(I)

_Inside the Forest of Death_

_3:11 p.m._

"I can't detect anything other than the animals around us. Still no signs of any other ninja around," Hinata called out to her two teammates as she stopped for a brief moment on one of the tree branches that made up the nearly impenetrable canopy of the Forest of Death. Since they had entered the Forty-Fourth, they had been traveling along some of the higher branches that they could reach with Naruto leading their group, Hinata following in the middle and Kaname bringing up the rear based on Kaname's strategy. With her Byakugan, she was constantly scanning a massive sphere around them as best as she could to keep an eye out for any other shinobi that might be down on the ground below. By how fast they were traveling, they still had about another two miles to go before they would reach the tower and find a spot to lie in wait in, when her Naruto's part of the plan would come into play. Once they touched down, he was going to create a massive army of shadow clones who would then hide themselves around wherever they set up base so they could ambush whatever unlucky team happened to cross their path. "Naruto, have you smelled anything yet?"

"Nothing other than the smell of this forest and dried blood. My nose isn't detecting any smell remotely human." He replied without stopping to face her. "And speaking of the _smell _of the forest, you both should be glad you can't smell what I can. I've nearly _tasted_ the scent of old animal crap since the second we stepped into this place."

From behind her, a deep and smooth laugh came from Kaname. "Are you sure that is not just your own body odor, comrade? The scents are pretty similar."

Hinata couldn't help but chuckle a little at the sand-born preteen's attempt to lighten the mood of their current situation. It was one thing to have to trek through this literal deathtrap of a forest while having already had to fend off some ridiculously large animal and insect life and some species of flora she hoped to never see again; it was quite another to try to do it while maintaining any sort of good morale in their ranks. They had already passed over, and had to hide from, a snake that was literally more than two hundred feet from tip to tail and a good thirty feet tall and then wasted a good portion of their weaponry on a mess of leech-like creatures that had attacked them and were easily as big as her own head. Throughout the last hour of their flight through the branches, she had really begun to understand just why they had named this place the Forest of Death.

"Why didn't I think of that? Tell you what, next time we go to the baths I'll make sure to wash real well right after I drown your ass!" Naruto replied as he landed on a branch about thirty feet in front of Hinata.

"Kaname, Naru-kun!" Hinata shouted as silently as she could, the cheerful chuckle fading from her voice and face instantly. Crouching down on the large branch she was standing on, she carefully peered over the edge of it and down toward the ground far below. Only a few yards in front of Naruto on the ground nearly two hundred feet below, her eyes detected something… something that was definitely not right. Glancing up quickly at the boy she had kissed, she gestured for him to jump back to her and for Kaname to do the same before looking back down. She waited until they both landed on the branch and knelt down too before she spoke up. "I see what looks like it could be another team but… in front of them… are three dead bodies."

"What?" Naruto asked sharply, instantly shooting his eyes down toward the floor of the forest where Hinata was staring intently.

"What's more, the team that is still alive, there is something wrong with one of their chakras." She spoke, her voice sounding more and more shocked and amazed. "I-it's like the flow inside one of their bodies' is being disrupted and… overpowered… by another source of chakra from within their body. It is not anything remotely like what I normally see within a person's chakra network."

Leaning in toward Naruto so that Kaname could not hear, she whispered one vital fact that personally affected his involvement in this team. "The chakra, it is almost like yours."

"I'm going down there." The kitsune said as he rose to his feet. His heart was racing with what Hinata had just told him, pumping chakra-fueled blood to every part of his body as he prepared himself for a fight. "Kaname, Hinata; drop down after I do but hide in the bushes until I say it's safe. I want to find out a little about these people."

Without another word, he pulled a single strand of razor wire from his satchel and tied a kunai to each end of it. Wrapping one part around the tree branch, he grabbed the other kunai and then leapt off the branch.

As the ground rushed up to meet him, the wire went taut and dropped him down toward the ground nearly a hundred feet below where Hinata and Kaname were still looking on. While he dropped closer and closer to where the group, his eyes saw the three dead bodies of a genin team lying in front of a single redheaded boy while his teammates stood a few yards behind him. The sickly metallic scent of fresh blood soaked into the soil, coupled surprisingly with the aroma of sand, hung heavily all around the redhead while just watched his victims continue to bleed out.

Letting go of the kunai, Naruto dropped silently just behind the boy's two teammates.

"Do you honestly think I can't hear you?" Spoke the redhead, turning around. Even with his two teammates turning to face him, Naruto's attention was drawn to the boy with the different chakra that Hinata had detected. The boy could not have been any older than he was but his face showed a pure death behind his black-lined pale green eyes. His pallid face was expressionless, like that of a corpse being viewed in the casket. The only defining characteristic he had besides his hair and eyes was a single mark on the upper left part of his forehead, a kanji that had been burned through the very skin itself like some sort of branding job that had gone horribly awry. Around his back hung a gigantic gourd that seemed to be almost as tall as the boy himself.

"Kankuro!" One of the boy's two teammates, a girl with sandy blonde hair dressed in a short white one-piece dress with a red sash, spoke to the other boy. Before he could react, however, the redhead simply waved his hand and both of his fellow squad members stopped moving. "… Gaara?"

_'Gaara… so that's his name.'_ Naruto just stared down the boy, a cold and still feeling washing over him like an icy wave washing onto a deserted beach in the middle of the night. There was something about this tattooed boy, something in his blood-soaked scent, the was driving the young kitsune insane; it was something that ignited a deep desire somewhere buried far down in the darkest reaches of his subconscious to fight Gaara. Even though he maintained a calm face save his eyes, his mind was screaming inside for him to rip apart the boy with his own two hands like the worst kind of beast. All of his instincts begged for the chance to just kill the redhead. _'There is something about him, __something different that whatever part of me still carries part of __**her**__ does not like. I can already feel my chakra churning and twisting in my body just looking at him! Damnit, what is up with this guy?!'_

"Mother does not like you." Gaara spoke as he began to walk toward Naruto. His voice was so dead and emotionless but so full of malice, of hate that it sent a cold shiver down the kitsune's spine. "I'm going to kill you now."

Without a single bit of notice, the ground beneath Naruto seemed to de-solidify, turning to sand which dragged him down whole.

(I)

"So how have they done today, Anko?" Kakashi asked, leaning back against a tree branch as he stared out over the village while the sun fell down over the horizon.

Stretching her arms as she slid another dumpling into her mouth from the stick they were on, she just looked up at the silver-haired young man who had been long-since been one of the only Konoha ninja entrusted with the truth of just what her orange-clad pupil really was. Even with only his right eye exposed for the world to see, the man looked completely natural, at peace with the world around him as though he did not have a care at all.

"They passed the first stage. No word on the second stage yet but I'm sure the love-birds can handle it; especially with how Kaname's starting to step up to a role as the team's tactician. I was worried that the little transfer would be deadweight when they gave me his file but he's really starting to show a mind that's better than most. Why this kid didn't ace the Academy's exit exams I still can't figure out. Maybe it was just nerves." She replied calmly as she leapt noiselessly up to the branch and landed at his feet. Sitting down, she could not help but admire the view he had as the whole of Konohagakure no Sato was lit up with brilliant splashes of red and orange and yellow and blue from the setting sun. The few clouds that hung in the sky were colored like marvelous rainbows that seemed to capture the very essence of the night. Smiling a rare peaceful smile, she just looked at him as she sat down on the branch. "What about you? Did yours make it?"

"Yeah, they made it to Stage Two. I'm glad that they're finally starting to work together more because I swear I was ready to kill both Kiba and Sasuke when they first got put together because they would not stop fighting." He answered casually. Swinging his legs over the side of the branch, he turned so that they were now sitting side by side. "However, things are finally starting to smooth over."

"That's good… So, we have four days before we have to meet our teams…" Anko said nervously, facing the masked shinobi. "What are we going to do?"

From beneath his face-mask, she could make out the distinct lines of a smile upon his lips. "I think we can find something. Like you said, we have four day–"

"What?"

Following his stare to the space behind her, her eyes immediately locked on to the reason he had stopped talking: two emergency carrier hawks that were flying their way with a notice from the Hokage tied to each one's left leg.

"Oh shit."

* * *

Author's Note: Really slow on the update this time so sorry about that. Classes started for Summer II this last week and let's just say that it isn't fun trying to study until 2:00 a.m. in the morning. Anyways, you're probably wondering what's in the notice for both Kakashi and Anko. Well you'll just have to wait until next time to find out. So until next time, so long and thanks for all the fish. Peace out.


End file.
